'War and Peace' has been described as the Illiad and the Odyssey of the Russian people, with just cause. This is a work that speaks to the meaning and hope of life. Tolstoy's realism forced him to strip away much of the glorification of war and show the realities. Yet Tolstoy presents the events of 1812 as a moral crusade, and that the Russians won against the Napoleonic onslaught because of their adherence to simple, good and true virtues (as much...

The Americans didn't simply outlast the British, nor was the war just a glorified guerrilla action with sporadic skirmishes, says W. J. Wood. Americans won their independence on the battlefield by employing superior strategies, tactics, and leadership in the battles of Bunker Hill, Quebec, Trenton, Princeton, Saratoga, and Cowpens, among many others. Here in this groundbreaking book are detailed accounts of attempts by commanders to adapt their forces...

On June 5, 1944, as dawn rises over a small town on the Normandy coast of France, Emmanuelle is making the bread that has sustained her fellow villagers in the dark days since the Germans invaded her country. Only twenty-two, Emma learned to bake at the side of a master, Ezra Kuchen, the village baker since before she was born. Apprenticed to Ezra at thirteen, Emma watched with shame and anger as her kind mentor was forced to wear the six-pointed...

It was a battle that would change the course of World War II... New York Times bestselling author Lauren Tarshis commemorates the Normandy landings in this pulse-pounding story of the largest seaborne invasion in history.

Eleven-year-old Paul's French village has been under Nazi control for years. His Jewish best friend has disappeared. Food is scarce. And there doesn't seem to be anything Paul can do to make things better.

Then

...

At 11:15 on the morning of June 28, 1914, in an outpost of the Austro-Hungarian Empire called Sarajevo, the twentieth century could be said to have been born. The repercussions of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand -- Emperor Franz Josef's nephew and heir apparent -- by a Bosnian Serb are with us to this day. The immediate aftermath of that act was war. Global in extent, it would last almost five years and leave five million civilian casualties...

Produced by The Great Courses in partnership with HISTORY, takes viewers into the sweeping story of the American fight against the Japanese. Taught by Professor Craig L. Symonds, a distinguished military historian at the US Naval War College, these 24 vivid lectures chronicle the global trajectory of the war in the Pacific, from the attack on Pearl Harbor to the birth of the atomic age.

McPherson reconstructs the gripping Battle of Antietam, which remains the single bloodiest day in the history of American combat. Through historical newspaper accounts and the personal letters of soldiers, the events leading up to the battle and the battle itself are stunningly re-created.

When shy school librarian Alexis Stone is dumped for being too meek-- in bed!-- she decides to kick-start a more adventurous life with her first one-night stand. At a hotel bar she meets Logan, a foul-mouthed stranger, but as they get to their room the hotel catches fire in a freak lightning storm-- and their exit is caught on camera. Now pictures of Alexis and Logan Arthur-- hotshot challenger for the Texas governor's seat-- are all over the internet....

U.S. Attorney General Allison Leahy is the nation's top law enforcement officer and the Democrtas' best chance for holding on to the Oval Office. But she has powerful competition in Republican Lincoln Howe, a retired fourstar general and bona finde Africa-American hero. They are running neck and neck, and seemingly nothing can break the deadlock. Then, just days before the election, disaster strikes. Twelve-year-old Kristen Howe, the general's granddaughter,...