Mostrando resultados por Editor "Audio Sommelier" en Historia

The Alhambra in Granada, the Mosque in Cordova - these are some of the magnificent physical remnants of Moorish rule in Spain. Their influence on culture, engineering, and civilization has also remained in ways often unacknowledged. Lane-Poole was the first to publish a scholarly history in English about a non-Christian civilization, making this a ground-breaking work. Written with extensive knowledge, wit, and admiration, Lane-Poole’s The Moors in Spain is not to be missed.

Not all that glitters is gold, and gold mining was not the simple get-rich-quick scheme many thought it was. The Diary of a Forty-Niner draws readers into the day-to-day life of a prospector during the California Gold Rush.

The great English preacher Charles Spurgeon lived in the 1800s, but his lament over the current state of spirituality sounds quite contemporary. Spurgeon saw a severe lack of spiritual knowledge among churchgoers of his day.

Shortly after John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln, he was tracked down and shot by authorities - that's what was officially reported, anyway. Lawyer Finis L. Bates, however, decided to set the record straight when he reported that in 1870 his acquaintance "John St. Helen" revealed himself to be none other than Booth living under an alter ego. Bates' version of the story is this: a hushed-up escape led Booth to 38 years of secret identities and an eventual suicide in an Oklahoma hotel. In this historical text, Bates unpacks the surprising truth about this infamous assassin.

A Defense of Calvinism is a classic text by Charles H. Spurgeon. This rendition is beautifully narrated by Bryan Nyman.

The Roman statesman Sulla had the nickname “Felix” - meaning “lucky.” Yet his accomplishments were more a matter of brute force than good fortune. He put an end to a civil war, declared himself dictator, and used his power to bring Rome back to its former value system, purging thousands of Roman enemies along the way. Plutarch’s biography of Sulla shows how one man’s use of force to obtain political power influenced many who came after him, most notably Julius Caesar.

Jim Bridger was a legendary frontiersman of the Western United States c. 1820-1850. In addition to being a skilled outdoorsman, he was also an expert mediator. Bridger helped negotiate relations among native tribes and the white men who were intruding on their land. This book aims to preserve the extraordinary legacy of this humble man who certainly earned his reputation as “The Grand Old Man of the Rockies”.

Einhard served Charlemagne, king and Holy Roman Emperor, for 23 years. From that experience, combined with his in-depth research, Einhard penned this biography of Charlemagne in the style of Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars. Because he felt indebted to Charlemagne, Einhard wrote in a partial tone, exalting the man’s achievements and overlooking certain unflattering details about his life. Despite this, historians regard The Life of Charlemagne as an important historical account that, while not far-reaching, is largely reliable.

Where does human energy come from, and where is it going? In this fascinating text, notable inventor Nikola Tesla examines these fundamental questions as he theorizes ways of maximizing human energy. While he thinks like a scientist, Tesla writes like a philosopher, making the text accessible for a wider audience. The Problem of Increasing Human Energy functions as both a valuable contribution to scientific thought and a self-help book for humanity.

As humans, we often wonder about our heroes’ (and, perhaps, our enemies’) opinions on the most assorted of topics. Mark Twain’s speech “Cigars and Tobacco” serves to satiate such curiosities. In it, he details his storied history with those two substances and his search for the “worst cigar in the New York Market.” It’s a brief treat for anyone who’s ever wondered about Twain’s tobacco consumption, or simply wants to read some miscellaneous wit from this literary master.

In this captivating sermon, 19th-century preacher Charles Spurgeon urges believers to submit completely to the will of God. Why wouldn’t you, he argues, if you believe God is good, all-knowing, and wise?

After voting in the 1872 presidential election, suffragette Susan B. Anthony was arrested and charged with a $100 fine. She refused to pay it, instead embarking on a speaking tour around the US to advocate for women’s legal right to vote. In this fiery speech she memorably stated, “It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens... who formed the Union.” Anthony argued that the fight for women’s right to vote was also a fight for their right to personhood in the eyes of the state, something women were finally granted nearly 50 years later.

Inventor and scientist Nikola Tesla believed in life on other planets. One night in his laboratory in the Colorado mountains, he began noting electronic signals that he deduced came from an intelligent life form on another planet. While over 100 years later we have still failed to prove the existence of alien life, Tesla’s short article provides a fascinating look at the possibility of interplanetary communication. To the visionary who invented wireless communication, sending a message to Mars was merely the logical next step.

The Romans hated Pompey’s greedy father, Strabo, with a vengeance. Yet when Pompey rose in prominence, Plutarch notes that he developed the opposite character, and the Romans loved him for it. Pompey had many great accomplishments in his military and political life, but his legacy lies in forming the First Triumvirate with Crassus and Caesar. When the alliance eventually dissolved, and Pompey fled from Caesar to his death, the Roman world would never be the same.

Billy the Kid was a real-life outlaw, a cattle rustler in the Southwest who was wanted - dead or alive. One fateful night in 1881, he was shot and killed in a darkened room by nemesis Sheriff Pat Garrett. With this account, the sheriff aimed to set the record straight about his final showdown with the Kid. Since its publication, The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid has served as a primary source on this legendary outlaw’s life for historians and storytellers alike.

British statesman Benjamin Disraeli delivered this commanding speech in 1872. His imperialistic ideals informed his Conservative political platform as he advocated for maintaining the British Empire. He asked his audience if they were content to be a “comfortable England,” or if they preferred the glory of remaining “a great country - an imperial country - a country where your sons, when they rise, rise to paramount positions, and obtain not merely the esteem of their countrymen, but command the respect of the world.”

After Marathon, the Athenian government needed a new type of leader. That leader was politician and general Themistocles, whose life is well-attributed in Plutarch’s Parallel Lives series. From how he handled the Persian invasion to his time in Athens after the navy, Themistocles was known as the “Glory of the Law”. Though his later life was fraught with whisperings of treason, he went on to be remembered as one of the greatest navy leaders and politicians that Greece had.   

In The Life of Cicero, Plutarch details the priceless contributions Cicero made to Roman society. He translated the works of Greek philosophers into Latin, gained acclaim as an orator and lawyer, and was elected to office. Politics ultimately got the better of him, however, and his life ended in assassination while in exile. Cicero’s ideas live on through his body of work, but to learn about the man himself, Plutarch’s biography is an excellent starting point.  

On December 29, 1890, the US military entered the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation with the intention of disarming the natives. When met with resistance, the cavalry opened fire on the Lakota in a massacre that killed several hundred men, women, and children. A few months later, some of the Lakota survivors met with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in Washington to state their side of the story. These powerful testimonies present this horrific event from the perspective of those most hurt by it.

Cabeza de Vaca left Spain to explore the New World on a 1527 expedition. He was second in command of nearly 600 men, but only he and three others survived the treacherous weather, exotic diseases, and attacking indigenous people. Cabeza de Vaca survived eight straight years of wandering through the America’s southwest by becoming a medicine man to the natives. In the events of this memoir, he recounts how he helped resuscitate a man, and suddenly “all over the land nothing else was spoken of.”