Charles River Editors

Although the Sumerians continue to get second or even third billing compared to the Babylonians and Assyrians, perhaps because they never built an empire as great as the Assyrians or established a city as enduring and great as Babylon, they were the people who provided the template of civilization t

Since the early days of human warfare, which may date back to the Stone Age, combatants have sought to gain an advantage through the acquisition of secret information. With the growth of technology, a parallel advantage was sought through the application of numerous types of torture....

Robert Smalls’ life illustrates what can happen when one is freed from the fetters of others’ estimations. Smalls’ metamorphosis from slave to ship pilot to U.S. Congressman displays the power of fiery determination and unrelenting ambition.

Hathor: The History of the Ancient Egyptian Sky Goddess and Symbolic Mother of the Pharaohs examines the history of the deity, her characteristics, and her lasting legacy on Egypt. You will learn about Hathor like never before....

Scientists have long attempted to understand Earth’s past, and in service to that effort, they have divided the world’s history into eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages....

Of all the heroes of Hollywood, Errol Flynn has by long odds the greatest amount of non-phony glamor....

Any work about the mercurial Aleister Crowley is better off being labeled a “story” than a “biography” thanks to the impossibility of being sure that anything one reads about him is true....

It takes a special type of person to serve in a nation’s navy, especially on long voyages that separate men and women from their loved ones, and no service is both loved and hated as that aboard submarines, for very few people ever serve on them on a whim.

John Dee was one of the greatest scientific minds of his time, but also one of the most controversial. He was a learned man in fields as varied as mathematics and astronomy, centuries before they became formalized fields of study, but he is remembered for performing magic and alchemy....

Yugoslavia was arguably one of the most unusual geopolitical creations of the 20th century. The Yugoslav state had never existed in any historical sense, and the ties that bound together its constituent peoples were tenuous at best. Listen to learn more about Yugoslavia....

As the oft-repeated and invariably accurate pearl of wisdom goes, a dog truly is man's best friend. For a long time, people have almost universally loved dogs, and it seems to have been that way for at least tens of thousands of years....

The United Kingdom is an ancient land steeped in history and tradition, filled with prehistoric ruins, majestic castles, and a countryside sculpted from millennia of human habitation. Thus, it is not surprising that many believe the area is filled with ghosts....

Among the leaders of the 20th century, arguably none shaped the course of history as much as Vladimir Lenin....

The library of Nag Hammadi, Egypt, is as significant in the study of early Christianity as the writings of the Essenes to the understanding of Judaism during the time of the Roman occupation....

The Cold War moved into one of its most dangerous phases after Brezhnev’s death as both sides deployed nuclear weapons within alarming proximity in Europe....

Today, the world is in the midst of the transformative and ever-developing Digital Age, otherwise referred to as the “Age of Information.”

Given their stellar legacy, it is little surprise that ANZAC soldiers were used by the British Empire for the several decades, most notably in World War II....

During the 19th century, Japan severely limited contact with the rest of the world, although it was not the total isolation sometimes presumed. The government was quite aware of what was happening in the rest of the world....

As technological advances and the creation of flying aircraft became realities, the sighting of UFOs increased, as did the interest in potential contact with aliens....

In 1832, 17-year-old Otto von Bismarck was already rejecting the republican indoctrination of his grade school years, longing for the glory of a nation under a single, strong leader....