Dead Wake
by Erik Larson | 
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
by Jane Jacobs | 
One Summer: America, 1927
by Bill Bryson | 
Six Frigates
by Ian W. Toll | 
American Gun
by Chris Kyle | 
The History of Jihad
by Robert Spencer | 
Five Days at Memorial
by Sheri Fink | 
Season of the Witch
by David Talbot | 
When Thunder Rolled
by Ed Rasimus | 
The Day the World Went Nuclear
by Bill O'Reilly | 
The History of Surfing
by Matt Warshaw | 
Swords and Swordsmen
by Mike Loades | 
Gotham
by Edwin G. Burrows | 
War Bonds
by Cindy Hval | 
The Sea Wolves
by Lars Brownworth | 
The Last Days of the Incas
by Kim MacQuarrie | 
Silent Victory
by Clay Blair | 
Mythos
by Stephen Fry | 
Countdown to Zero Day
by Kim Zetter | 
The Nazis Next Door
by Eric Lichtblau |
"Fascinating and immensely readable" is the way one British newspaper described A History in Fragments. With the rise of the European superpower-symbolized by the introduction of the euro on January 1, 2002-Europe has gained a new prominence on the world stage. But if you think that, in a changing world order, Europe is one area that we Americans have a grasp of-think again. The great stories of the century-the two world wars, the rise and fall of Nazism and Communism- are self-evident in their importance. But behind the politics and the ideologies lies another history: the history of forces that shaped the lives of individual Europeans...and the lives of men and women around the world. These are stories not only of politics and military movements, but also of culture, religion, sex, and demographics, related here with an unmatched eye for the telling detail and spiced with memorable anecdotes. As the U.K.'s prestigious Sunday Telegraph put it: "Vinen moves effortlessly from social and economic issues to politics, from ideology to military history...The writing is lively, the enthusiasm infectious, and the gift for bold, epigrammatic summary genuinely impressive."