Completely revised, including previously unseen material on Franco's treatment of women in wartime prisons, The Spanish Civil War is a classic work on this pivotal epoch in the twentieth century. Tracking the emergence of francisco franco's brutal and, extraordinarily durable fascist dictatorship, ultimately, Preston assesses the ways in which the Spanish Civil War presaged the Second World War that ensued so rapidly after it.

The attempted social revolution in Spain awakened progressive hopes during the Depression, but the conflict quickly escalated into a new and horrific form of warfare. This surging history recounts the struggles of the 1936 war in which more than 3, 000 Americans took up arms. As preston shows, louis fischer, john dos passos, vincent Sheean, the unprecedented levels of brutality were burned into the American consciousness as never before by the revolutionary war reporting of Ernest Hemingway, Herbert Matthews, and many others.

The definitive work on the Spanish Civil War, a classic of modern historical scholarship and a masterful narrative. Paul preston is the world's foremost historian of Spain.

The War of the Three Gods: Romans, Persians, and the Rise of Islam

This is an exciting and important study of a conflict that reshaped the map of the world. Skyhorse publishing, the american revolution, the old west, ancient rome, conspiracies, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, Hitler and his henchmen, medieval times, the Third Reich, Vikings, the American Civil War, the JFK assassination, gladiators, as well as our Arcade imprint, and much more.

Many of the epic battles of the period—Nineveh, Yarmuk, Qadisiyyah and Nahavand—and sieges such as those of Jerusalem and Constantinople are described in as rich detail. His conquests were short-lived, administering the coup de grace to Sassanid power and laying siege to Constantinople itself, however, for the newly converted adherents of Islam burst upon the region, ushering in a new era.

Peter crawford skillfully narrates the three-way struggle between the Christian Roman, Zoroastrian Persian, and Islamic Arab empires, Khusro II, including Heraclius, a period of conflict peopled with fascinating characters, and the Prophet Muhammad himself. The war of the three gods is a military history of the near and middle East in the seventh century—with its chief focus on the reign of the Eastern Roman Emperor Heraclius AD 610–641—a pivotal and dramatic time in world history.

The eastern roman empire was brought to the very brink of extinction by the Sassanid Persians before Heraclius managed to inflict a crushing defeat on the Sassanids with a desperate, final gambit. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

The strategies and tactics of these very different armies are discussed and analyzed, while plentiful maps allow the reader to follow the events and varying fortunes of the contending empires.

Rivers of Gold: The Rise of the Spanish Empire, from Columbus to Magellan

Columbus and other spanish explorers—Cortés, Ponce de León, and Magellan among them—created an empire for Spain of unsurpassed size and scope. The lofty aspirations of the first explorers died hard, as the pursuit of wealth and glory competed with the pursuit of pious impulses. The adventurers from spain were also, of course, curious about geographical mysteries, and they had a remarkable loyalty to their country.

Flush with success, they agreed to sponsor an obscure Genoese sailor’s plan to sail west to the Indies, legend purported, where, gold and spices flowed as if they were rivers. In spite of its small scale, it was a mission of astounding scope: to claim for Spain all the wealth of the Indies. But rather than bridging earth and heaven, Spain’s many conquests bore a bitter fruit.

More significant, it is an engrossing history with many profound—often disturbing—echoes in the present. Her monarchs, had retaken granada from Islam, Fernando and Isabel, thereby completing restoration of the entire Iberian peninsula to Catholic rule. The gold alone, would fund a grand Crusade to reunite Christendom with its holy city, thought Columbus, Jerusalem.

For spain and for the world, this decision to send Christopher Columbus west was epochal—the dividing line between the medieval and the modern. Spain’s colonial adventures began inauspiciously: Columbus’s meagerly funded expedition cost less than a Spanish princess’s recent wedding. From one of the greatest historians of the Spanish world, here is a fresh and fascinating account of Spain’s early conquests in the Americas.

Stalin

In his single-minded dedication to the growth of Russia under communism, Stalin was able to disregard all sense of morality. His name brings to mind brutal terrorism and ruthless oppression. Even winston Churchill held him in awe. Stalin is a powerful history of russia's evolution from backward nation to world power, as well as a dramatic portrait of a man who was called both "The Implacable" and "Beloved Father.

". What set him above others was his intelligence, discipline, perception, and above all, indomitable will, a messianic determination to lead Russia to a grand destiny. Grey's comprehensive biography portrays stalin as a complex, paradoxical figure - a leader whose power was rooted in the tsarist traditions he abhorred and whose tyranny was based on an ambition to ensure the strength of his party.

Yet, as new york times bestselling author Ian Grey shows, at the core of the Man of Steel was a humble, puritanical Georgian peasant. Yet, through his magnetism, he commanded the respect of his colleagues and the adulation of his people. Joseph stalin was one of the most frightening figures of the twentieth century.

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Moral Combat: Good and Evil in World War II

Magnificent. . . . Seldom has a study of the past combined such erudition with such exuberance. The guardian "no-one with an interest in the Second World War should be without this book; and indeed nor should anyone who cares about how our world has come about. The daily telegraph pre-eminent wwii historian Michael Burleigh delivers a brilliant new examination of the day-to-day moral crises underpinning the momentous conflicts of the Second World War.

A magisterial counterpart to his award-winning and internationally bestselling the third reich, "not just the war planners faced with the prospect of bombing Dresden or the atrocities of the Holocaust, winner of the Samuel Johnson prize, Moral Combat offers a unique and riveting look at, in the words of The Times London, but also the individuals working at the coalface of war, killing or murdering, resisting or collaborating.

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The Gestapo: The Myth and Reality of Hitler's Secret Police

It also tells the equally disturbing stories of the involvement of the German citizenry in the Gestapo’s surveillance and reveals the cold-blooded, efficient methods of the Gestapo officers. A new, comprehensive exploration of the Gestapo from a renowned historian of the Third Reich. Drawing on a detailed examination of previously unpublished Gestapo case files this book relates the fascinating, vivid and disturbing accounts of a cross-section of ordinary and extraordinary people who opposed the Nazi regime.

. Despite its material constraints, for it reveals that the complicity of regular German citizens in the rendition of their associates, the degree to which the group was able to manipulateand collude withthe general public is as astonishing as it is chilling, friends, colleagues, and neighbors was essential in allowing the Gestapo to extend its reach widely and quickly.

Longlisted for 2016 pen hessell-tiltman prize and ranked one of the 100 best books of 2015 in the daily telegraph with access to previously inaccessible records, this is the fullest and most definitive account of the Gestapo yet publishedThe Gestapo will provide a chilling new doorway into the everyday life of the Third Reich and give powerful testimony from the victims of Nazi terror and poignant life stories of those who opposed Hitler's regime while also challenging popular myths about Hitler's secret police.

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The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography

While gustave eiffel was changing the skyline of Paris, large parts of France were still terra incognita. French itself was a minority language. Graham robb describes that unknown world in arresting narrative detail. He recounts the epic journeys of mapmakers, scientists, soldiers, and intrepid tourists, administrators, pilgrims, of itinerant workers, and herdsmen with their millions of migratory domestic animals.

A new york times notable book, slate best Book, Publishers Weekly Best Book, and Booklist Editor's Choice. Even in the age of railways and newspapers, France was a land of ancient tribal divisions, prehistoric communication networks, and pre-Christian beliefs. We learn how france was explored, and colonized, charted, and how the imperial influence of Paris was gradually extended throughout a kingdom of isolated towns and villages.

The discovery of france explains how the modern nation came to be and how poorly understood that nation still is today. Above all, it shows how much of France—past and present—remains to be discovered. A witty, engaging narrative style. Robb's approach is particularly engrossing.

Nazi Germany and the Jews: Volume 1: The Years of Persecution 1933-1939

We hear from the persecutors themselves: the leaders of the Nazi party, the members of the Protestant and Catholic hierarchies, the university elites, and the heads of the business community. Most telling of all, perhaps, segregation, are the testimonies of ordinary German citizens, expulsion, impoverishment, humiliation, who in the main acquiesced to increasing waves of dismissals, and violence.

A great historian crowns a lifetime of thought and research by answering a question that has haunted us for more than 50 years: How did one of the most industrially and culturally advanced nations in the world embark on and continue along the path leading to one of the most enormous criminal enterprises in history, Saul Friedlander restores the voices of Jews who, after the 1933 Nazi accession to power, the extermination of Europe's Jews? Giving considerable emphasis to a wealth of new archival findings, were engulfed in an increasingly horrifying reality.

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The Life and Times of Mexico

The result is a work of magnificent scope and profound insight into the divided soul of Mexico. A san francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year. Earl shorris is ingenious at finding ways to tell this story: prostitutes in the Plaza Loreto launch the discussion of economics; we are taken inside two crucial elections as Mexico struggles toward democracy; we watch the creation of a popular "telenovela" and meet the country's greatest living intellectual.

. A work of scope and profound insight into the divided soul of Mexico. History todaythe life and times of mexico is a grand narrative driven by 3, the 1910 Revolution, 000 years of history: the Indian world, Independence, the Spanish invasion, the tragic lives of workers in assembly plants along the border, and the experiences of millions of Mexicans who live in the United States.

Mexico is seen here as if it were a person, shamans, the heart, the winds of life; and on every page there are portraits and stories: artists, teachers, but in the Aztec way; the mind, a young Maya political leader; the rich few and the many poor.

Russia at War, 1941–1945: A History

What followed was the widely acclaimed book, Russia at War, first printed in 1964. In 1941, russian-born british journalist Alexander Werth observed the unfolding of the Soviet-German conflict with his own eyes. Despite its sheer historical scope, drawing from his daily interviews and conversations with generals, soldiers, Werth tells the story of a country at war in startlingly human terms, peasants, and other working class civilians.

The result is a unique and expansive work with immeasurable breadth and depth, built on lucid and engaging prose, that captures every aspect of a terrible moment in human history. Now newly updated with a foreword by soviet historian nicolas Werth, the son of Alexander Werth, this new edition of Russia at War continues to be indispensable World War II journalism and the definitive historical authority on the Soviet-German war.

. At once a history of facts, russia at war is a stunning, and a document of the human condition, a collection of interviews, modern classic that chronicles the savagery and struggles on Russian soil during the most incredible military conflict in modern history. As a behind-the-scenes eyewitness to the pivotal, massive military operations, Werth chronicles with vivid detail the hardships of everyday citizens, shattering events as they occurred, and the political movements toward diplomacy as the world tried to reckon with what they had created.

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The Lost Peace: Leadership in a Time of Horror and Hope, 1945-1953

Robert dallek brings to this majestic work a profound understanding of history, a deep engagement in foreign policy, and a lifetime of studying leadership. As the obama administration struggles to define its strategy for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Dallek's critical and compelling look at Truman, Churchill, Stalin, and other world leaders in the wake of World War II not only offers important historical perspective but provides timely insight on America's course into the future.

Kennedy, 1917-1963 with this masterful account of the crucial period that shaped the postwar world. The story of what went wrong during the postwar period…has never been more intelligently explored. Doris kearns goodwin, author of the pulitzer prize-winning Team of RivalsRobert Dalleck follows his bestselling Nixon and Kissenger: Partners in Power and An Unfinished Life: John F.

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