Evangelists of human progress meet their opposite in Matthew White's epic examination of history's one hundred most violent events, or, in White's piquant phrasing, "the numbers that people want to argue about." Reaching back to 480 BCE's second Persian War, White moves chronologically through history to this century's war in the Congo and devotes chapters to each event, where he surrounds hard facts (time and place) and succinct takeaways (who usually...

Blood Meridian is widely recognised as the masterpiece of Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Cormac McCarthy. It is an historical epic, a compelling reinterpretation of the Western, and one of the great American novels of the twentieth century. It tells the story of a teenage runaway known only as 'the kid', who falls in with a group of notorious outlaws: the Glanton Gang. Violent, direct and extraordinarily powerful, the novel traces the destiny

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Sixty-six years ago, the town of Irish Channel in Louisiana was the site of a horrible massacre on St. Patrick's Day. While some blame a terrible storm that blew through the town, there are those that don't talk about what really happened. Since the massacre, St. Patrick's Day festivities in town were banned, but now the Mayor believes that it is finally time to celebrate. The townspeople must battle a vengeful leprechaun that nearly destroyed their...

After coming upon the scene of a horrifying massacre, roaming gunslinger El Topo demands justice. He learns that the atrocity was committed by someone named The Colonel, and after tracking down the villain and his equally vile men, the mystery man murders them all. A young woman is so grateful to be released from the Colonel's bondage that she agrees to ride with El Topo. But she does not love him and will only pledge her devotion if he kills the...

Ten years ago, Harry Warden murdered twenty-two people with a pickaxe. Tom returns to his hometown on the anniversary of the Valentine's night massacre. Instead of a homecoming, however, Tom finds himself suspected of committing the murders instead of Harry. The only person who seems to believe he is innocent is his old girlfriend. Now, something has returned to the town of Harmony. Wearing a miner's mask and armed with a pickaxe, an unstoppable killer...

"In this sweeping survey, Milo Milton Quaife traces the events leading from Chicago's emergence as a key outpost at the edge of the frontier to its establishment as the crossroads of American commerce. Strategically located at the head of the Great Lakes on the Chicago portage, one of the main highways connecting the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence waterway with the Mississippi River, Chicago was equally valued by explorers, traders, settlers, and governments....

Kevin's mother struggles to love her strange child, despite the increasingly vicious things he says and does as he grows up. But Kevin is just getting started, and his final act will be beyond anything anyone imagined. This thriller explores the fractious relationship between a mother and her evil son.

The skipper of the fourth U.S.S. Enterprise is Jean-Luc Picard who is sent to investigate a massacre at a science outpost. The only survivor is Dr. Soran, who perpetrated the event to cover up his invention: a bomb he launched into a nearby sun, exploding it. As Soran escapes with Klingon cronies, Picard learns that Soran's plan is to summon a heavenly energy ribbon called the Nexus. Attempting to stop Soran, Picard ends up inside the Nexus, where...

The Hopi community of Awat'ovi existed peacefully on Arizona's Antelope Mesa for generations. Then one bleak morning in the fall of 1700 raiders from nearby Hopi villages descended on Awat'ovi, slaughtering their neighboring men, women, and children. Why did kinsmen target it for destruction? Drawing on oral traditions, archival accounts, and extensive archaeological research, Brooks unravels the story and its significance, and argues that a perfect...

An account of the My Lai incident based on interviews with the men of Charlie Company and on a limited number of transcripts from the Army's investigation.