The most notorious man in history, Adolf Hitler, is best known for having perpetrated crimes against humanity over the six-year course of World War II. His brutal extermination policies are responsible for the deaths of close to 30 million people he considered inferior, and added to that, the military casualties suffered by all parties, yields a grand total of approximately 60 million people dead by the end of the war. That number equates to 3% of the world's population at the time. But, who was this man? What made him into the monster he became? Can his childhood explain the formation of such a brutal dictator? 

During the late years of the 18th century, the spirit of Enlightenment thinking and revolution were in the air. The world was changing, moving away from ingrained beliefs about religion, reason, society, and the rights of the individual and turning more toward the laws of nature as interpreted by the scientific method. Nowhere was the influence of this radical new way of thinking more apparent than in France, and the upheaval this caused would come to bloody fruition in the form of revolution. 

Rome is a city of myth and legend. The Eternal City, the city of the seven hills, the sacred city, the caput mundi, the center of the world, Roma, Rome, by any of her many names is a city built of history and blood, marble and water, war and conquest. From legendary beginnings, a city rose from the swamp surrounded by the seven hills and split by the Tiber River. Built and rebuilt, a sacred republic and a divine empire, blessed by a thousand gods and by One, the story of her rise and fall has been told and retold for a thousand years and is still relevant in today's world, as echoes of her ancient glory have shaped our culture, laws, lifestyle, and beliefs in subtle and pervasive ways.

Nikola Tesla was a major figure in the world in which he lived. As the 19th century gave way to the 20th, it was Tesla who would contribute to some of the world's most amazing inventions. It was Tesla's theories, patents, and experiments that would pave the way for the digital, wireless world we are so familiar with today. Tesla didn't enjoy the high honors bestowed on so many of his contemporaries, yet he enjoyed the power of knowing that it was his inventions that were powering the world, literally.

World War I, or the Great War, was believed to be "the war to end all wars". Because of the incredible extent of destruction and the staggering number of wounded and dead, even those who lived through it could scarcely comprehend its horror. Beginning in 1914, alliances between powerful nations soon plunged the world into a global conflict. Fighting - including miserable trench warfare - broke out in practically every corner of Europe and spread around the world to Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

What do you think of when you consider the Middle Ages? Knights in armor and damsels in distress? Vikings plundering monasteries? Religious dissenters burning at the stake? The dead bodies piling up as war, famine, and plague devastated Europe? Think again. While all these are part of the tapestry of the medieval era, the threads of politics, personality and war, culture, religion, education and the arts are vastly more intricate and fascinating. 

The Queen of Great Britain and Ireland for 63 years, Queen Victoria’s life was one of magnificent proportions. Victoria’s childhood was difficult and lonely, but from the time she took the throne aged just 18, she blossomed into a powerful woman, both frivolous and formidable. In her later years, Victoria struggled to find balance between her wish to live a very private life as a widow and her duty to live the very public life of a queen and later empress.

The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first battles of the American War of Independence, an introduction into years of combat that would pit the forces of the Thirteen Colonies against the world’s mightiest empire - Great Britain. The events of April 19, 1775, have been commemorated in poetry and have become part of the sweeping legend of the American fight for independence. 

George Washington, the first president of the United States, is much more than a monument on Mount Rushmore. Who was Washington, the general, president, and husband? He was first and foremost a man of impeccable honor which, despite military adversity and political wrangling, never abandoned him. The Founding Fathers who squabbled and competed among themselves did agree on one thing: Only Washington could lead the country, first in the country’s military fight for freedom and then as the man charged with transforming 13 individual states into a united country.

He built the greatest business empire the world had ever seen. He founded incredible libraries, art museums, and donated to charities by the boatload. In this audiobook, we will discover the incredible story of Andrew Carnegie’s life from beginning to end. 

This is a short timeline of Thomas Paine, a well-known political activist and revolutionary. He was born in England and later migrated to Philadelphia. He is best known for his two influential pamphlets encouraging patriots to gain independence from the British. He was a major source of inspiration for the American Revolution.

Creativity is in our bones. It is found in our very DNA, something not known to Leonardo da Vinci or anyone else who lived in his day and time. All he did was to uncover the hidden genius which lay within himself, and he used that inner genius to the very best of his abilities. Leonardo da Vinci is best known for some of the world's most masterful paintings, but he was so much more than merely another artist with paints and brushes. Born to a peasant woman in 1452, Leonardo would go on to astound the world he lived in with his artistry and his inventions.

Beginning with the birth of the nation, slavery divided and caused conflict for the United States of America, worsening during the country's early decades as the practice became more economically vital. Finally, in 1861, the American Civil War erupted after the election of President Abraham Lincoln. Never acknowledging the South’s right to secede, Lincoln and the North fought the South through four long, bloody, destructive years; much longer than anyone thought the war would last. 

John D. Rockefeller, the wealthiest man of all time, amassed a fortune as he led the Standard Oil Company to an unprecedented position of power in the industrial markets. In addition to being a successful businessman, he was also a generous philanthropist. But somewhere between the money he earned and the money he gave away lies a mystery that remains unsolved. How could someone so generous have been so hated in his time? Was Rockefeller a villain or a hero?

Discover the remarkable history of the Nuremberg Trials...In 1933, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, triumphant after the July 1932 elections, was the largest political party in Germany. The Nazis quickly banned all other political parties and proceeded to implement the policies which aroused the anti-Semitic sentiment of the German people. When the Allied Powers joined forces to fight the Nazis, they were determined to bring the German leaders to justice in an international court where they would be tried for their war crimes.