AP World History 2009 Reading Assignment

Directions:

Paper should be typed in Times New Roman, font size 12, double-spaced.

The paper should be in the following format:o Paragraph 1: Introduction (Title, Author, and why you chose the

book)o Paragraph 2: Summary of the story includes three quotes from

the story, 150 words Min.o Paragraph 3: Explain the time period and the historical events

that this book references.o Paragraph 4: How did this book give you a deeper insight into

this era of world history?o Paragraph 5: Conclusion (Would you recommend this book to

other students as a good way to learn about this time period? Why or why not?)

Please see attached rubric for specific grading guidelines DUE: October 9, 2009, December 4, 2009, February 5, 2010, April 1,

2010 NOTE: You will need to choose 1 book from the list each quarter.

You many also use a book that has been pre-approved by the teacher. You may not go back and read a book from a previous quarter, so make it count.

Book List: First Quarter

Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfieldo Tells the story of the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C., when 300 warriors

of Sparta held back an overwhelming number of rampaging soldiers from the Persian Empire for six days before being wiped out.

Pompeii by Robert Harriso An adventure tale set in 1st century Rome

Siddhartha by Herman Hesseo A young man’s journey for self-knowledge and enlightenment, which

explores both Buddhist and Hindu philosophies

The King Must Die by Mary Renaulto The story of the Greek god Theseus, and life in Ancient Greece

The Art of War by Sun Tzu (See second to last page for instructions on how to write your report for this book).

o Sun Tzu’s incisive blueprint for battlefield strategy. “A clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease.”

Augustus: The Life of Rome’s First Emperor – by Anthony Everetto As Rome’s first emperor, Augustus transformed the unruly Republic into

the greatest empire the world had ever seen. His consolidation and expansion of Roman power two thousand years ago laid the foundations, for all of Western history to follow.

The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian – by Robin Lane Fox

o Framing this history of the classical world as he imagines the second-century Emperor Hadrian (who traveled the classical world and had a "classicizing mind") would have done, this scintillating survey seeks to understand Greek and Roman civilizations on their own terms.

Caesar: Life of a Colossus – by Adrian Goldsworthyo The first major biography of Julius Caesar in decades, this volume offers an

astonishingly intimate and complex view of the life of this singular leader.

God's War: A New History of the Crusades – by Christopher Tyermano From 1096 to 1500, European Christians fought to recreate the Middle

East, Muslim Spain, and the pagan Baltic in the image of their God. The Crusades are perhaps both the most familiar and most misunderstood phenomena of the medieval world, and here Christopher Tyerman seeks to recreate, from the ground up, the centuries of violence committed as an act of religious devotion.

The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians – by Peter Heather

o The death of the Roman Empire is one of the perennial mysteries of world history. Peter Heather proposes a stunning new solution: Rome generated its own nemesis. Centuries of imperialism turned the neighbors it called barbarians into an enemy capable of dismantling the Empire that had dominated their lives for so long.

The Haj by Leon Uris o Tells an epic story of hate and love, vengeance and forgiveness and

forgiveness in the Middle East.

Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, and Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive That Changed the World – by Jack Kelly

o Invented to frighten evil spirits rather than fuel guns or bombs-neither of which had been thought of yet-their simple mixture of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal went on to make the modern world possible.

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond o A brilliant work answering the question of why the peoples of certain

continents succeeded in invading other continents and conquering or displacing their peoples.

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherfordo The name Genghis Khan often conjures the image of a relentless,

bloodthirsty barbarian on horseback leading a ruthless band of nomadic warriors in the looting of the civilized world. But the surprising truth is that Genghis Khan was a visionary leader whose conquests joined backward Europe with the flourishing cultures of Asia to trigger a global awakening, an unprecedented explosion of technologies, trade, and ideas.

I, Claudius – Robert Graveso Considered an idiot because of his physical deformities, Claudius survived

the intrigues and poisonings of the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, and the Mad Caligula to become emperor in 41 A.D. A masterpiece.

Plagues and Peoples – by William Hardy McNeillo An intriguing work that examines how plagues & diseases have affected

civilizations & the history of the world.

Rats, Lice and History – by Hans Zinssero A fascinating and revealing exploration of the scourge of plague and

disease and its impact on society and history. Chronicles the devastation caused by epidemics, from typhus to the Black Death, documenting the human response to disease.

In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made by Norman Cantor

o This book draws together the most recent scientific discoveries and groundbreaking historical research to pierce the mist and tell the story of the Black Death.

Thermopylae: The Battle that Changed the World by Paul Cartledgeo A masterful account of the causes, preparations for and consequences of

the three-day battle in 480 b.c. that claimed the lives of all 300 Spartan defenders of the eponymous pass and those of perhaps as many as 20,000 Persian invaders.

The Great Wall: The Extraordinary Story of China's Wonder of the World by John Man

o Traveling the wall end to end from Mongolia to Lanzhou, the capital of China's Gansu province, Man learns that the first Great Wall sprang from

the towering ambition and brutal policies of the first emperor, Zheng, who around 214 B.C. repaired and joined up a collection of little walls totaling 2,500 kilometers in length. In 1138, China's Jin rulers built 4,000 kilometers of wall, but the Mongols, led by Genghis Khan, burst through the wall in the 13th century and stayed for 150 years. To ensure that they never returned, the 15th-century Ming Dynasty built its wall.

Nero’s Killing Machine: by Stephen Dando – Collinso The 14th Gemina Martia Victrix Legion was the most celebrated unit of the

early Roman Empire–a force that had been wiped out under Julius Caesar, reformed, and almost wiped out again. After participating in the C.E. 43 invasion of Britain, the 14th Legion achieved its greatest glory when it put down the famous rebellion of the Britons under Boudicca. Numbering less than 10,000 men, the disciplined Roman killing machine defeated 230,000 rampaging rebels, slaughtering 80,000 with only 400 Roman losses–an accomplishment that led the emperor Nero to honor the legion with the title "Conqueror of Britain."

Blood of the Caesars by Stephen Dando Collinso Could the killing of Germanicus Julius Caesar—the grandson of Mark

Antony, adopted son of the emperor Tiberius, father of Caligula, and grandfather of Nero—while the Roman Empire was still in its infancy have been the root cause of the empire's collapse more than four centuries later? This brilliant investigation of Germanicus Caesar’s death and its aftermath is both a compelling history and first-class murder mystery with a plot twist Agatha Christie would envy.

Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome by Anthony Everitto The first major account of the emperor is presented in a compelling, richly

researched biography of the man whom he calls arguably “the most successful of Rome’s rulers.”

Marcus Aurelius: A Life by Frank McLynno A narrative of Aurelius' rise to emperor in 161 C.E.—a role to which he

was, temperamentally unsuited—and the challenges he faced, mostly unsuccessfully, during his 19-year reign. Attempting to protect the Roman Empire from the German barbarians he gave land to these foreign tribes. This strategy backfired, creating new economic and social divisions.

The Last Days of Socrates by Plato o The trial and condemnation of Socrates on charges of heresy and

corrupting young minds is a defining moment in the history of Classical Athens. In tracing these events through four dialogues, Plato also developed his own philosophy, based on Socrates' manifesto for a life guided by self-responsibility. Euthyphro finds Socrates outside the court-house, debating the nature of piety, while The Apology is his robust rebuttal of the charges of impiety and a defense of the philosopher's life.

Murder in the Place of Anubis by Lynda Robinson

o This exceptional debut melds ancient Egyptian religious belief and practice with court intrigue to produce a riveting mystery. The court of the young Pharaoh Tutankhamen still suffers some of the tumultuous aftereffects of the reign of his father, the iconoclastic monotheist, Akhenaton. When the body of the scribe Hormin is found with an obsidian embalming knife sticking from its neck at the Place of Anubis, Tutankhamen assigns the task of finding the murderer--and the desecrator of holy places--to his "Eyes and Ears," Lord Meren. Meren and his adopted son Kysen begin with Hormin's family, whose members lay both murder and the theft of an expensive beaded collar at the feet of Hormin's mistress, the sultry Beltis, who returns the charges. To solve the murder, Meren and Kysen retrace the scribe's last day, using surprisingly sophisticated, but credible, investigative techniques.

Ancient Greece: A Political, Social and Cultural History by Sarah B. Pomeroy, Stanley M. Burstein, Walter Donlan, Jennifer Tolbert Roberts

o Four well-known classicists have taken the traditional chronology of Greek history texts and written a much-needed overview for modern students. By means of a chapter structure that is well designed and logical, they take us through each period of Greek history and introduce the defining historiographical and literary issues.

The Peloponnesian War by Thucydideso “The greatest historian that ever lived." Such was Macaulay's assessment

of Thucydides (c. 460-400 BC) and his history of the Peloponnesian War, the momentous struggle between Athens and Sparta that lasted for twenty-seven years from 431 to 404 BC, involved virtually the whole of the Greek world, and ended in the fall of Athens. A participant in the war himself, Thucydides brings to his history an awesome intellect, brilliant narrative, and penetrating analysis of the nature of power, as it affects both states and individuals.

The Spartans by Paul Cartledge

o Legendary for their ferocious combat skills, the Spartans built a warrior culture in ancient Greece unsurpassed for its courage and military prowess. Eminent historian Cartledge (Spartan Reflections) provides a remarkable chronicle of Sparta's rise and fall, from its likely origins around 1100 B.C. to the height of its fame and glory in the battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. and its fall in the fourth century B.C. The Spartans built their society through conquest and subjugation, ruling over their subject peoples with an iron hand and putting down revolts with devastating might.

A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War by Victor Davis Hanson

o An elegant, lucidly written analysis of the 27-year civil war, a "colossal absurdity," that ended in Athens's 5th-century B.C. loss to Sparta and the depletion of centuries of material and intellectual wealth.

The Crusades: A History by Jonathan Riley-Smith o Acclaimed as the most comprehensive and authoritative survey of the

crusading movement

The Epic of Gilgamesh by Maureen Kovacs o Since the discovery over one hundred years ago of a body of

Mesopotamian poetry preserved on clay tablets, what has come to be known as the Epic of Gilgamesh has been considered a masterpiece of ancient literature. It recounts the deeds of a hero-king of ancient Mesopotamia, following him through adventures and encounters with men and gods alike. Yet the central concerns of the Epic lie deeper than the lively and exotic story line: they revolve around a man’s eternal struggle with the limitations of human nature, and encompass the basic human feelings of lonliness, friendship, love, loss, revenge, and the fear of oblivion of death.

Ancient Rome: A Military and Political History by Christopher S. Mackay o Ancient Rome is a concise, comprehensive political and military history of

the Roman Republic and Empire, from the origins of the city in the Italian Iron Age, until the deposition of the last emperor in 476 AD. Christopher Mackay describes how military events undermined the political institutions of the Republic, how the Empire was administered and controlled, why Christianity was adopted as the state religion under Constantine, and how military and economic pressures of the third and fourth centuries eventually led to the downfall of the Western empire.

Life Along the Silk Road by Susan Whitfieldo A recount of the history of the eastern Silk Road, from Samarkand to

Chang'an, through 10 individuals--composites based on the historical record--who lived in different city-states along the eastern Silk Road from the 8th to the 10th centuries.

Sarah: A Novel: Marek Haltero A retelling of the Old Testament story of Abraham and Sarah; the birth of

their son, Isaac; and the creation of the Jewish people. Before Sarai can become Sarah, she must first be a teenager. The daughter of a lord of Ur, she is frightened by her first menstrual blood and runs away from an arranged marriage and meets a nomad boy named Abram. Even though they spend only one night together, she feels an intense connection with him, but she cannot imagine a future with someone so different from herself and returns to her father's house. Still frightened of becoming a wife and mother, she purchases herbs that leave her infertile and is dedicated as a Priestess of Ishtar. Years later, the two are reunited and marry.

The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King by James Patterson

o Thrust onto Egypt's most powerful throne at the age of nine, King Tut's reign was fiercely debated from the outset. Behind the palace's veil of prosperity, bitter rivalries and jealousy flourished among the Boy King's most trusted advisors, and after only nine years, King Tut suddenly perished, his name purged from Egyptian history. To this day, his death remains shrouded in controversy. Enchanted by the ruler's tragic story and hoping to unlock the answers to the 3,000 year-old mystery, Howard Carter made it his life's mission to uncover the pharaoh's hidden tomb. He began his search in 1907, but encountered countless setbacks and dead-ends before he finally, uncovered the long-lost crypt. James Patterson and Martin Dugard dig through stacks of evidence--X-rays, Carter's files, forensic clues, and stories told through the ages--to arrive at their own account of King Tut's life and death. The result is an exhilarating true crime tale of intrigue, passion, and betrayal that casts fresh light on the oldest mystery of all.

A History of the World in Six Glasses by Tom Standageo Historian Tom Standage explores the significant role that six beverages

have played in the world's history. Few realize the prominence of beer in ancient Egypt, but it was crucial to both cultural and religious life throughout the Fertile Crescent, appearing even in the Gilgamesh epic. Wine's history has been recounted in many places, and its use to avoid often--polluted water supplies made it ubiquitous wherever grapes could be easily cultivated. Spirits, first manufactured by Arabs and later rejected by them with the rise of Islam, played a fundamental role in the ascendance of the British navy. As a stimulant, coffee found no hostility within Islam's tenets, and its use spread as the faith moved out of Arabia into Asia and Europe. Tea enjoyed similar status, and it bound China and India to the West. Cola drinks, a modern American phenomenon, relied on American mass-marketing skills to achieve dominance.

The Ides: Caesar's Murder and the War for Rome by Stephen Dando-Collinso A step-by-step history of the events leading to the assassination of Julius Caesar and the

impact of his removal on the collapse of the Roman Republic. Caesar's rise to power and his limitless ambitionposed an immediate threat to the survival of the Republic, which caused fear and consternation in those, such as Marcus Brutus, who nobly wished to defend Roman democracy. Brutus and his fellow senator Cassius planned the assassination and, with the help of yet other senators, carried it out on March 15, 44 B.C.E. Public sentiment originally favored the Liberators, as the assassins were known, but, thanks to the scheming of Marc Antony and the fickleness of the crowds, Brutus, Cassius, and others were forced to flee the city. In the months that followed, Antony and his sometime ally, Caesar's heir, Octavian, destroyed the Liberatorsonly to later wage war against each other. Antony's ultimate defeat led to Octavian's installation as the first emperor, Augustus Caesar. The dramatic story examines the roles of soldiers, politicians, philosophers, wives, and mistresses with perhaps too much emphasis placed on the ever-popular Cleopatra.

Book List: Second Quarter

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Folletto Set in 12th-century England, the narrative concerns the building of a

cathedral in the fictional town of Kingsbridge. The ambitions of three men merge, conflict and collide through four decades during which social and political upheaval and the internal politics of the church affect the progress of the cathedral and the fortunes of the protagonists.

The Hundred Years War: The English in France 1337-1453 by Desmond Sewardo Critically acclaimed account of the Hundred Years War brings to life all of

the intrigue, beauty, and royal to-the-death-finding of that legendary century long conflict.

1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the Westby Roger Crowley

o A complete and compelling account of the fall of Constantinople, the siege that gave rise to today's jihad.

Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali by D.T. Nianeo An epic tale derived from oral history in West Africa

Aztec by Gary Jenningso The story of an Aztec traveler at the height of the empire

Aztec Autumn: Gary Jenningso This sequel to Jennings's immensely popular epic Aztec picks up one

generation after the Aztec empire has been invaded by the conquistadores.

1421: The Year China Discovered America – by Gavin Menzieso On March 8, 1421, the largest fleet the world had ever seen set sail from

China. When it returned in October 1423, the emperor had fallen, leaving China in political and economic chaos. The great ships were left to rot at their moorings and the records of their journeys were destroyed. Lost in China's long, self-imposed isolation that followed was the knowledge that Chinese ships had reached America seventy years before Columbus and a century before Magellan had circumnavigated the globe.

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond o Diamond casts a wide net in the realms of history, geography, and science

to address questions essential to humanity's continued survival.

The Adventures of Ibn Battuta – by Ross E. Dunno Known as the greatest traveler of premodern times, Abu Abdallah Ibn

Battuta was born in Morocco in 1304 and educated in Islamic law. This book tells of his that spanned nearly three decades and took him not only eastward to India and China but also north to the Volga River valley and south to Tanzania.

True History of Chocolate – by Sophie D. Coe, Michael D. Coeo This delightful tale of one of the world's favorite foods draws upon botany,

archaeology, socio-economics, and culinary history to present a complete and accurate history of chocolate.

Salt: A World History – by Mark Kurlanskyo This book takes a look at an ordinary substance--salt, the only rock

humans eat--and how it has shaped civilization from the very beginning.

The Riddle of the Compass: The Invention That Changed the World – by Amir D. Aczel

o Explains both the 12th-century Italian invention of the compass and this life-saving instrument's extraordinary prehistory.

The Power of Gold: The History of an Obsession by Peter L. Bernsteino This book explores the timeless appeal and tremendous impact held by

this unique element.

Spice: The history of a Temptation by Jack Turnero Though the race to discover the lands of spices is one topic here, the

central focus of this entertaining work is on the many uses attributed to spices through history, which extended beyond flavoring to include aphrodisiacs, preservatives, incense for the gods, and medicine. The result is a cultural history that highlights religious mores, notions of health and sexuality, and food ways in the ancient, medieval, and early modern eras, mainly in the West.

Sins of the Fathers: The Atlantic Slave Traders 1441-1807 by James Pope-Hennessy

o Based on journals and letters of slave traders, merchant seamen, and slaves, themselves, this is a passionate account of the Atlantic slave trade, from its origins in the fifteenth century to its gradual dissolution in the early 1800s.

The Incas: People of the Sun by Carman Bernando The story of a magnificently advanced civilization--the Incas' unparalleled

mastery of gold and their extraordinary architectural and agricultural feats are known throughout the world--and its bloody demise.

The Last Days of the Incas by Kim MacQuarrieo An authoritative, exciting history is among the most powerful and

important accounts of the culture of the South American Indians and the Spanish Conquest.

Victory of the West by Niccolo Capponio The battle of Lepanto, fought in 1571, was both one of history's significant

naval engagements and a watershed in the long war between Christians and Muslims. To pierce its penumbra of myths and legends, Capponi returns to the original archival and printed sources to construct this fresh, multilayered analysis.

With Fire and Sword by Henryk Sienkiewiczo The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth still controlled Eastern Europe in

1647, but during that year everything changed. The first sparks appeared in the Ukraine, where a domestic dispute between Bohdan Hmyelnitzki and his neighbor mushroomed into a full-blown Cossack rebellion against the gentry. Long-smoldering resentments flashed into a wildfire of rape, pillage, and murder as the peasants joined the Cossack army and fought their way toward Warsaw, bringing with them the dreaded hordes of Tartars from the east. Fighting in this epic conflict, Yan Skshetuski, commander of armored knights in the prince's army, falls in love with the beautiful Helen, only to have her stolen by the Cossacks. Thus, the string of ensuing battles becomes not just a struggle for Poland's survival but a search by Skshetuski and his fellow knights for Helen, the symbol of all Poland was and now stands to lose.

Conquistador: Hernán Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs

o The saga of Cortés, Montezuma, and the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire has been chronicled repeatedly, and with justification, since it is one of the seminal events in world history. There is probably no new information on the conquest left to uncover, but it is a thrilling, moving, and tragic story well worth retelling.

The Sign of the Chrysanthemum by Katherine Paterson

o A boys search for his father, a samurai warrior, in 12th century Japan.

Journeyer by Gary Jennings

o The boy Marco, heir to the Polo merchant family, kicks against Venetian convention, having his first serape when he chivalrously agrees to kill a noble lady's husband for her. His rescuer from the death cell? One Mordecai Cartafelo, who'll pop up in other guises to save Marco from subsequent perils - which proliferate as Marco journeys to the East with father Nicolo and Uncle Mafio.

Khubilai Khan's Lost Fleet: In Search of a Legendary Armada by James P. Delgado

o In 1279, near what is now Hong Kong, Mongol ruler Khubilai Khan fulfilled the dream of his grandfather, Genghis Khan, by conquering China. The Grand Khan now ruled the largest empire the world has ever seen--one that stretched from the China Sea to the plains of Hungary. He also inherited the world's largest navy--more than seven hundred ships. Yet within fifteen years, Khubilai Khan's massive fleet was gone. What actually happened to the Mongol navy, considered for seven centuries to be little more than legend, has finally been revealed.

Shogun by James Clavello A bold English adventurer. An invincible Japanese warlord. A beautiful

woman torn between two ways of life, two ways of love. All brought together in a mighty saga of a time and place aflame with conflict, passion, ambition, lust and the struggle for power.

The Grand Turk: Sultan Mehmet II-Conqueror of Constantinople and Master of an Empire by John Freely

o Mehmet was barely twenty-one when he conquered Byzantine Constantinople, which became Istanbul and the capital of his mighty empire. Mehmet reigned for thirty years, during which time his armies extended the borders of his empire halfway across Asia Minor and as far into Europe as Hungary and Italy. Three popes called for crusades against him as Christian Europe came face to face with a new Muslim empire. Revered by the Turks and seen as a brutal tyrant by the West, Mehmet was a brilliant military leader as well as a renaissance prince. His court

housed Persian and Turkish poets, Arab and Greek astronomers, and Italian scholars and artists.

World Without End by Ken Follett o The cathedral and the priory presented in Pillars of the Earth are again at

the center of a web of love and hate, greed and pride, ambition and revenge, but this sequel stands on its own. This time the men and women of an extraordinary cast of characters find themselves at a crossroad of new ideas--about medicine, commerce, architecture, and justice. In a world where proponents of the old ways fiercely battle those with progressive minds, the intrigue and tension quickly reach a boiling point against the devastating backdrop of the greatest natural disaster ever to strike the human race--the Black Death.

Lost City of the Incas by Hiram Bingham o Early in the 20th century, Bingham ventured into the wild and then

unknown country of the Eastern Peruvian Andes--and in 1911 came upon the fabulous Inca city that made him famous: Machu Picchu. In the space of one short season he went on to discover two more lost cities, including Vitcos, where the last Incan Emperor was assassinated.

The Incas (Peoples of America) by Terence N. D'Altroy o The great empire of the Incas at its height encompassed an area of

western South America comparable in size to the Roman Empire in Europe. This book describes and explains its extraordinary progress from a remote Andean settlement near Lake Titicaca to its rapid demise six centuries later at the hands of the Spanish conquerors.

The Incas and Their Ancestors: The Archaeology of Peru by Michael E. Moseleyo A clear and highly readable account of how the Inca empire evolved and

thrived despite its enormous geographical diversity.

Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World by Justin Marozzi o By the time of his death in 1405, the Mongol conqueror Tamerlane-a

pejorative derivative of the nickname "Temur the Lame"-commanded as much land and fear as any ruler in history. Literally following in the footsteps of Ghengis Khan, he built his empire with one invasion after the next, eventually amassing a kingdom that stretched "from Moscow to the Mediterranean, from Delhi to Damascus." Nonetheless, Tamerlane remains relatively unknown in the Western world, taking a historical backseat to Ghengis despite a reign and ruthlessness every bit as remarkable.

Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World by Roger Crowley

o Is the West engaged in a “clash of civilizations” with the Islamic peoples of the Middle East? According to Crowley, that clash occurred in the sixteenth century, when Islam, under the leadership of the Ottoman Turks, seemed poised to dominate most of Europe. The “impregnable city” of Constantinople had been taken in 1453, and by the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Turks were ensconced in the Balkans. The key to the struggle between the Turks and the Christian West was control of the eastern rim of the Mediterranean Sea.

Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain 1492 by Matthew Carr

o An examination of the uneasy coexistence of Christians and Muslims beginning in 1492, when Spain was united under the Christian Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. Over the next century, Christian leaders grew less and less tolerant of Iberian Muslims, requiring them to convert to Catholicism. In April 1609, this growing intolerance culminated in an edict accusing these converts, known as Moriscos, of heresy and apostasy and decreeing their expulsion. Over the next five years, an estimated 350,000 Muslims were forced to abandon their homes; many died on the journey to the ships that would take them to North Africa, and many others were terrorized, raped, robbed and killed by forces that were supposed to protect them.

Book List: Third Quarter

The Examination by Malcolm Bosse

o This story takes place during the late Ming Dynasty (late 16th to early 17th-century C.E.), young Lao Chen journeys from his hometown to the capital of his province for the provincial exams, then to Beijing for the nationals. An aloof, brilliant, yet impractical scholar, Chen is intent more on testing his book knowledge and literary finesse than on gaining political

power. He is accompanied by his younger brother and self-appointed guardian, Hong, who is practical and worldly wise. The two traverse a nation in decline, replete with peasant rebellions, secret societies, armies on the move, and vivid characters from all levels of society. As one brother crowns his achievements with a government post, the other secures his position in a secret society dedicated to bringing down that government.

Not Even My Name by Thea Haloo The harrowing story of the slaughter of two million Pontic Greeks and

Armenians in Turkey after WWI comes to vivid life in Sano Halo's memoir, as told by her daughter Thea.

The Twentieth Wife: A Novel by Indu Sundaresan

o The world of the Mughal Court's zenana, or imperial harem. Her heroine exercises power in the only way available to a woman in 17th-century India: from behind the veil. At the age of 8, Mehrunissa (the name means "Sun of Women") has already settled on her life's goal. After just one glimpse of his face, she wants to marry the Crown Prince Salim. And marry him she does, albeit some 26 years later, after overcoming the opposition of her family, an ill-starred early marriage, numerous miscarriages, and the scheming of other wives.

1776 by David McCullougho The intensely human story of those who marched with General George

Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence — when the whole American cause was riding on their success

Nathaniel’s Nutmeg by Giles Milton o The story of the competition over the spice islands in Southeast Asia

between England and Holland in the 17th century

Brunelleschi’s Dome by Ross Kingo A description of Renaissance life told through the story of an architect

Agony and the Ecstasy – by Irving Stoneo A compelling portrait of Michelangelo's dangerous, impassioned loves, and

the God-driven fury from which he wrested the greatest art the world has ever known.

The Scarlet Pimpernell by Baroness Orczy Emmuskao The story of an English gentleman smuggling condemned innocent people

out of France during the Reign of Terror

King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa – by Adam Hochschild

o In the 1880's, King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the vast and largely unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. Carrying out a

genocidal plundering of the Congo, he looted its rubber, brutalized its people, and ultimately slashed the population by ten million--all while shrewdly cultivating his international reputation as a great humanitarian.

Trinity – by Leon Uriso This book re-creates Ireland’s fierce struggle for independence.

Boxer Rebellion: - by Diana Preston o Chinese peasants chafed against the foreign technologies and ideas that

the imperialists introduced, they began a new movement-mystical, materialistic, and virulently anti-Christian in order to stop these foreign ways from spreading.

Doctor Zhivago - Boris Pasternako The story of the life and loves of a poet/physician during the turmoil of the

Russian Revolution.

War and Peace – Leo Tolstoyo An epic of the Napoleonic wars, a philosophical study, and a celebration of

the Russian spirit.

Les Miserables – by Victor Hugoo An enormous melodrama set against the background of political upheaval

in France following the rule of Napoleon I.

The Alchemist by Ben Jonsono Ben Jonson's rich play offers intriguing insights into London life of the early

seventeenth century. He satirises and celebrates the confusions and anarchy of a fast-moving city world populated by a fascinating array of diverse and devious characters.

Cash Nexus: Economics and Politics from the Age of Warfare through the Age of Welfare, 1700-2000 – by Niall Ferguson

o An admirably lucid picture of how economics fostered the Western nation-state. Beginning in the late 1700s, when the British government sold bonds to fund imperial expansion, Ferguson maps the ways politics and economics have interacted.

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingwayo A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance

driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse.All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque

o Paul Baumer enlisted with his classmates in the German army of World War I. Youthful, enthusiastic, they become soldiers. But despite what they have learned, they break into pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches. And as horrible war plods on year after year, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against the principles of hate that meaninglessly pits young men of the same generation but different uniforms against each

other—if only he can come out of the war alive.

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingwayo A profound and timeless story of courage and commitment, love and loss,

that takes place over a fleeting 72 hours.

Gandhi: An Autobiography by Mahatma Gandhio Mohandas K. Gandhi is one of the most inspiring figures of our time. In his

classic autobiography he recounts the story of his life and how he developed his concept of active nonviolent resistance, which propelled the Indian struggle for independence and countless other nonviolent struggles of the twentieth century.

Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World by Margaret Macmillano The "war to end all wars" ended with a conference that helped spawn

conflicts that persist to this day. The 1919 Versailles peacemakers created Iraq, Palestine, and Yugoslavia. They debated Kosovo, Kurdish independence, Islamic aspirations, women's rights, and the threat of communism. Margaret Macmillan’s lively, detailed, sometimes mind-boggling narrative of the Paris Peace Conference follows the tangled negotiations to end World War I.

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaarao Pulitzer Prize winning novel about the civil war.

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Craneo The story of a young American during the Civil War, who harbors a hidden

fear about how he may react when the horror and bloodshed of battle begin. Fighting the enemy without and the terror within, Fleming must prove himself and find his own meaning of valor.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Alexander Browno An eloquent, fully-documented account of the systematic destruction of

American Indians during the second half of the 19th century. Using council records, autobiographies and other firsthand descriptions, allowing the great chiefs and warriors of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux and Cheyenne to tell us about the battles, massacres and broken treaties that finally left them demoralized and defeated.

The Road from Home by David Kherdiano Turkey's pre-World War I `final solution' to its Armenian minority [is

recounted in this] illuminating memoir of a survivor remarkable for her unwavering faith in life.

A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility by Taner Akcam

o In 1915, under the cover of a world war, some one million Armenians were killed through starvation, forced marches, forced exile, and mass acts of slaughter. Although Armenians and world opinion have held the Ottoman powers responsible, Turkey has consistently rejected any claim of intentional genocide.Turkish historian Taner Akçam follows the chain of events leading up to the killing and then reconstructs its systematic orchestration by coordinated departments of the Ottoman state, the ruling political parties, and the military. He also probes the crucial question of how Turkey succeeded in evading responsibility, pointing to competing international interests in the region, the priorities of Turkish nationalists, and the international community’s inadequate attempts to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Diamonds, Gold, and War: The British, the Boers, and the Making of South Africa by Martin Meredith

o A vivid and thrilling account of the forging of southern Africa into its present distinctive shape and character. Martin Meredith captures the colors and textures of the land and brings to life the extraordinary figures who peopled it and whose influence lingers on.

The Mexican Wars For Independence by Timothy Hendersono A good synthesis for the general reader of what is known about Mexico's

wars for independence between 1810 and 1821. He illustrates how the policies and practices of the Spanish colonial authorities led to a stratification of Mexican society, which ultimately brought about demands for political and social reform, and how attitudes and events in Spain influenced Mexican politics, society, and the course of the wars for independence. The royalists, Creoles (Spaniards born in Mexico), castes (those of mixed parentage), and Indians had different objectives

Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire by Judith Herrino A brilliant study of the history of the Byzantine Empire by chronicling the 1,000-year history

of Byzantium from its rise in A.D. 306 to its demise at the hands of the Ottomans.

Children of Armenia: A Forgotten Genocide and the Century-long Struggle for Justice by Michael Bobelian

o The 1915 genocide perpetrated by the Turkish government against its Armenian subjects drags on in the form of Turkish denial and global indifference, according to this rancorous history. This is story of the ensuing refusal of Turkey and the international community—especially the United States—to properly acknowledge the crime. The author chronicles a generations-long contest between moral claims and realpolitik; after initial Western outrage, the genocide was shoved off the agenda of Turkish-American relations by commercial interests and the anti-Soviet alliance.

The Napoleonic Wars by Gunther Rothenberg o This vividly illustrated history of the Napoleonic Wars documents the wars'

origins in the French Revolution, narrates Napoleon's victories at Austerlitz

and Jena, and concludes with his defeats in the Iberian peninsula, Russia, and finally at Waterloo.

Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie o A moving, tragic, and unforgettable account of the extraordinary Imperial

dynasty of Tsar Nicholas II, his doomed empire, and a revolution that would inexorably change the world forever.

Two Brothers: One North, One South by David R. Joneso Walt Whitman feared that the real war would never get in the books: the

true stories that depicted the courage and humanity of soldiers who fought, bled, and died in the American Civil War. This novel spans four years in the midst of America s costliest and most commemorated war. The journey is navigated by the poet, Walt Whitman, whose documented compassion for the wounded and dying soldiers of the war takes him to Armory Square Hospital in Washington, D.C., and finds him at the bedside of William Prentiss, a Rebel soldier, just after fighting has ended. As fate has it, William's brother, Clifton, a Union officer, is being treated in another ward of the same hospital, and Whitman becomes the sole link not just between the two, but with the rest of their family as well.

Dogs of God: Columbus, the Inquisition, and the defeat of the Moors by James Reston Jr.

o Veteran journalist and author Reston brings to life three key elements of Spanish history that intertwined in 1492. Columbus takes a back seat to the Inquisition and the defeat of Islamic Granada, but plays a key role in demonstrating their relationship to the rise of empire and the modern state.

A More Unbending Battle: The Harlem Hellfighter's Struggle for Freedom in WWI and Equality at Home by Peter N. Nelson

o Nelson (Left for Dead) tells the story of the 369th Infantry, a segregated regiment that overcame discrimination to make an enviable combat record in the trenches of WWI. Nelson describes the regiment's organization in 1916 and its success in attracting volunteers despite a racist environment. American Expeditionary Force commander John J. Pershing considered blacks suitable only as labor troops. But the French forces, decimated by war, welcomed the 369th, which earned respect the hard way: the nickname Harlem Hellfighters came from the Germans, who faced them.

World War One: A Short History by Norman Stone o Four years after World War I began the continent of Europe faced a spectrum of

disasters: shattered economies, shattered societies, shattered lives and shattered illusions. Stone demonstrates the contingent nature of the war's outbreak and analyzes the continued failure to achieve decision on the Western Front until 1917. Stone specializes in Great War Russia, does a first-rate job of presenting the consequences of the collapse of four empires: Hapsburg, German, tsarist and Ottoman. He challenges current interpretations of the postwar treaties, presenting them as a list of failures.

We Two: Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals by Gillian Gillo The most influential marriage of the nineteenth century--and one of history’s most enduring love

stories revealing a strong, feisty queen and a brilliant, fragile prince working together to build a family based on support, trust, and fidelity, qualities neither had seen much of as children. The love affair that emerges is far more captivating, complex, and relevant than that depicted in any previous account.

Book List: Fourth Quarter

The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevskyo Dostoevsky poured all of his deepest concerns—the origin of evil, the nature

of freedom, the craving for meaning and, most importantly, whether God exists.

Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandayao A story of survival describing life as an Indian woman

The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tano One woman’s story of life in 20th century China, told to her daughter

Mila 18 by Leon Uriso This novel is set in the midst of the ghetto uprising that defied Nazi

tyranny, as the Jews of Warsaw boldly met Wehrmacht tanks with homemade weapons and bare fists.

The Samurai's Garden – Gail Tsukiyamao This new novel centers on a young Chinese man visiting Japan and his

relationship with four local residents.

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang o This book describes the life of her grandmother, a warlord's concubine; her

mother's struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents' experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution.

Weep Not, Child – by Ngugi wa Thiongoo This is a simple and powerful tale of the effects of the Mau Mau war on

individuals and families in Kenya.

Caravans – by James A. Michnero In the years immediately following World War II, a young American

woman, married and living in Afghanistan against her parents' wishes, suddenly and mysteriously disappears.

The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II by Iris Chango In December 1937, in what was then the capital of China, one of the most

brutal massacres in the long annals of wartime barbarity occurred.

Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account – by Miklos Nyiszlio When the Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944, they sent virtually the entire

Jewish population to Auschwitz. A Jew and a medical doctor, the prisoner Dr. Miklos Nyiszli was spared death for a grimmer fate: to perform "scientific research" on his fellow inmates under the supervision of the man who became known as the infamous "Angel of Death" - Dr. Josef Mengele.

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirero Considered by many to be the definitive history of National Socialism in

Germany, this monumental bestseller examines how Adolf Hitler nearly succeeded in conquering the world.

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Bucko This great modern classic depicts life in China at a time before the vast

political and social upheavals transformed an essentially agrarian country into a world power.

Witnesses of War: Children’s Lives under the Nazis by Nicholas Stargardt

o A witness of War breaks new ground in its exploration of the lives and the fate of children of all nationalities under the Nazi regime.

The Longest Night: The Bombing of London on May 10, 1941 by Gavin Mortimero The Longest Night reveals the untold story of the horrific bombing raid

that almost brought Britain to military collapse-using extensive survivors' testimony and previously classified documents to reveal just how close the Luftwaffe came to total victory.

Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction by Martin Gilberto Kristallnacht - the night of broken glass - saw the destruction in a single

night of more than a thousand synagogues, the ransacking of tens of thousands of Jewish shops and homes, and more than 30,000 Jewish men rounded up and taken to concentration camps. No other attack on Jews during the course of the Second World War was as widely reported by contemporary observers. Drawing on personal correspondence with more than fifty eyewitnesses and on vivid newspaper and diplomatic reports, pre-eminent historian Martin Gilbert has produced a meticulously researched account of the event.

The Third Reich in Power, 1933-1939 by Richard J. Evanso The definitive accounts of Germany’s malign transformation under Hitler's

total rule and the implacable march to war.

The Anatomy of Auschwitz Death Camp by Yisrael Gutmano Leading scholars from the United States, Israel, Poland, and other

European countries provide a comprehensive account of what took place at the Auschwitz death camp. The book addresses the history of the camp, the technology and dimensions of the genocide carried out there, profiles of the perpetrators and the lives of inmates, underground resistance and escapes, and what the outside world knew about Auschwitz and when

The Devils Disciples by Anthony Reado This study examines the personalities, rivalries, and beliefs of Hitler's chief

lieutenants. It concentrates on Göring, Goebbels, and Himmler along with their major rivals—Bormann, Speer, and Ribbentrop.

Patton & Rommel by Dennis E. Showaltero A biography that compares the lives and careers of two generals whose

military tactics redirected the course of history.

Enemy at the Gates by W.S. Craigo Recreates the details of the great battle of Stalingrad, the bloodiest battle

in the history of warfare, cost the lives of nearly two million men and women.

Gulag by Anne Applebaum

o A fully documented history of the Soviet camp system, from its origins in the Russian Revolution to its collapse in the era of glasnost.

Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitlero A compilation of Hitler's most famous prison writings of 1923--the bible of

National Socialism and the blueprint for the Third Reich.

In Time of War: Hitler's Terrorist Attack on America by Pierce O'Donnello Eight Nazi saboteurs were caught on American beaches after one of them

turned the others in. The execution of the saboteurs by the Roosevelt administration was challenged in court and eventually upheld in the Supreme Court's ruling in Ex parte Quirin.

The Devil's Arithmetic: by Jane Yolano During a Passover Seder, 12-year-old Hannah finds herself transported

from America in 1988 to Poland in 1942, where she assumes the life of young Chaya. Within days the Nazis take Chaya and her neighbors off to a concentration camp, mere components in the death factory. As days pass, Hannah's own memory of her past, and the prisoners' future, fades until she is Chaya completely. Chaya/Hannah's final sacrifice, and the return of memory, is her victory over the horror.

Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers by Filip Mullero Muller, one of the few prisoners who saw the Jewish people die and lived to

tell about it.

Commandant of Auschwitz by Rudolf Hoesso A self-portrait, composed by one of the greatest monsters of all time:

Rudolf Hoess, the Commandant at Auschwitz, and the man who knew more than almost anyone about how Nazi Germany implemented the Final Solution. Captured by the British after the war, tried, and sentenced to death, he was ordered to write his autobiography in the weeks between his trial and his execution (which fittingly took place in Auschwitz itself). Hoess apparently enjoyed the task, and the most careful checking by researchers showed he took great pains to tell the truth. The result: a vivid and unforgettable picture of the 20th century's defining and most horrific event.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Son of the Revolution by Lian Hango An autobiography of a young Chinese whose childhood and adolescence

were spent in Mao's China's during the Cultural Revolution.

Hitler's Shadow War: The Holocaust and World War II by Donald M. McKaleo Donald McKale surveys the history of the Holocaust to show how the

concept of racial war strongly influenced Hitler's thinking and actions before and after World War II, and how he believed the Holocaust and the war were closely connected.

Shanghai Diary by Ursula Bacon.  o A young German Jewish girl and her family flee Nazi Germany just in time,

and wind up spending World War Two in Japanese-occupied China.  Both a good coming-of-age story and an interesting mix of perspectives.

A State of Blood: The Inside Story of Idi Amin by Henry Kyemba

Auschwitz: True Tales from a Grotesque Land by Sarah Nomberg-Przytyk

o Sara Nomberg-Przytyk begins this painful and compelling account of her experiences while imprisoned for two years in the infamous death camp. Writing twenty years after her liberation, she recreates the events of a dark past which, in her own words, would have driven her mad had she tried to relive it sooner. But while she records unimaginable atrocities, she also richly describes the human compassion that stubbornly survived despite the backdrop of camp depersonalization and imminent extermination,

Pol Pot: by Philip Shorto In the three and a half years of Pol Pot's rule, more than a million

Cambodians, a fifth of the country's population, were executed or died from hunger. An idealistic and reclusive figure, Pol Pot sought to instill in his people values of moral purity and self-abnegation through a revolution of radical egalitarianism. In the process his country descended into madness, becoming a concentration camp of the mind, a slave state in which obedience was enforced on the killing fields.

Fidel Castro: My Life: A Spoken Autobiography by Ignacio Ramonet, Fidel Castro

o A two-year conversation with the controversial Cuban head of state, a collaboration that resulted in this Q&A-style, Castro-approved look into the revolutionary leader's life, from boyhood through his half-century in power.

The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany & the Jews 1939-1945 by Saul Friedlander

o Friedlander, one of the great historians of the Holocaust provides a rich, vivid depiction of Jewish life from France to Ukraine, Greece to Norway, in its most tragic period, drawing especially on hundreds of diaries written by Jews during their ordeal, depicting a world collapsing on its inhabitants, along with the thousands of humiliating persecutions that Jews suffered on their way to extermination.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Soldier Boy by Ishmael Beaho This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and

wielding AK-47s. Children have become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them.What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become

a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived.In A Long Way Gone, Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. 

The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy 1943 – 1944 by Rick Atkinson

o Atkinson’s second installment in "The Liberation Trilogy." He descends upon each battlefield with rich historical perspective, tactical analysis, and chilling frontline observations.

Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965 by Mark Moyar

o This book discusses the idea that America's longest and most controversial overseas war was "a worthy but improperly executed enterprise."

No Simple Victory by Norman Davieso The typical Western view of WWII's European Theater—as a struggle

between freedom and fascism that climaxed with the Normandy landings—is harshly critiqued in this scathing reappraisal. Historian Davies argues that British and American campaigns were a sideshow to the titanic conflict between the Wehr-macht and the Red Army on the Eastern Front, where most of the fighting and decisive battles occurred. The war was therefore not a simple victory of good over evil, he contends, but the defeat of one totalitarian state, Nazi Germany, by another, the Soviet Union, whose crimes were just as vast, if less diabolical.

Brothers In Battle, Best of Friends by William "Wild Bill" Guarnere, Edward "Babe" Heffron, & Robyn Post

o Post compiles the transcripts of her interviews to provide a personal history of the 101st Airborne Division's Easy Company, as well as the soldiers' own stories of growing up and growing old. Guarnere and Heffron share narration duties as they recount their South Philly childhoods, their induction into Easy Company (Guarnere was there for the company's formation; Heffron joined after D-Day) and their work in it, from the disastrous Operation Market Garden to the frozen hell of Bastogne.

Life and Death in the Third Reich by Peter Fritzscheo Fritzsche provides a more nuanced argument that the Nazis were quite

successful in winning the people's support, but it took time and effort. He cites diaries showing that individuals had to examine how they could become reconciled, or converted, to National Socialism. The fabled Volksgemeinschaft—people's community—was not mere propaganda but had a powerful allure that drew Germans into the Nazi orbit.

Boy In the Striped Pajamas: by John Boyneo Through the eyes of Bruno, a naive nine-year-old raised in a privileged

household by strict parents whose expectations included good manners and unquestioning respect for parental authority, the author describes a visit from the Fury and the family’s sudden move from Berlin to a place called Out-With in Poland. There, not 50 feet away, a high wire fence surrounds a huge dirt area of low huts and large square buildings. From his bedroom window, Bruno can see hundreds (maybe thousands) of people wearing striped pajamas and caps, and something made him feel very cold and unsafe. Uncertain of what his father actually does for a living, the boy is eager to discover the secret of the people on the other side. He follows the fence into the distance, where he meets Shmuel, a skinny, sad-looking Jewish resident who, amazingly, has his same birth date. Bruno shares his thoughts and feelings with Shmuel, some of his food, and his final day at Out-With, knowing instinctively that his father must never learn about this friendship.

Operation Valkyrie: The German Generals' Plot against Hitler: by Pierre Galante

o Operation Valkyrie was the code name given to the plot to assassinate Hitler and to enact a far-reaching military coup d'etat, from Paris to Berlin, against the Nazis.

Defiance: The Bielski Partisans: by Nechama Teco The suspenseful and inspiring story of Jewish partisans who fought the

Germans from their base in the Nalibocka Forest in Belorussia. Their leader, Tuvia Bielski, was an uneducated man who--though he had lost his parents, brothers and wife to the Germans--put efforts to preserve the lives of Jews above revenge.

Five Chimneys: The Story of Auschwitz by Olga Lengyelo Having lost her husband, her parents, and her two young sons to the Nazi

exterminators, Olga Lengyel had little to live for during her seven-month internment in Auschwitz. Only Lengyel's work in the prisoners' underground resistance and the need to tell this story kept her fighting for survival. She survived by her wit and incredible strength. Despite her horrifying closeness to the subject, Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz does not retreat into self-pit or sensationalism.

The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood: by Mark Kurzem

o When a Nazi death squad massacred his mother and fellow villagers, five-year-old Alex Kurzem escaped, hiding in the freezing Russian forest until he was picked up by a group of Latvian SS soldiers. Alex was able to hide his Jewish identity and win over the soldiers, becoming their mascot and an honorary “corporal” in the SS with his own uniform. But what began as a desperate bid for survival became a performance that delighted the highest ranks of the Nazi elite. And so a young Jewish boy ended up starring in a Nazi propaganda film.

Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII: by John Cornwello When Hitler’s Pope, the shocking story of Pope Pius XII that “redefined the

history of the twentieth century” was originally published, it sparked a firestorm of controversy both inside and outside the Catholic Church. Now, award-winning journalist John Cornwell has revisited this seminal work of history with a new introduction that both answers his critics and reaffirms his overall thesis that Pius XII, now scheduled to be canonized by the Vatican, weakened the Catholic Church with his endorsement of Hitler—and sealed the fate of the Jews in Europe.

No Simple Victory: World War II in Europe, 1939-1945: by Norman Davieso The typical Western view of WWII's European Theater—as a struggle

between freedom and fascism that climaxed with the Normandy landings—is harshly critiqued in this scathing reappraisal. Davies argues that British and American campaigns were a sideshow to the titanic conflict between the Wehr-macht and the Red Army on the Eastern Front, where most of the fighting and decisive battles occurred. The war was therefore not a simple victory of good over evil, he contends, but the defeat of one totalitarian state, Nazi Germany, by another, the Soviet Union, whose crimes were just as vast, if less diabolical. Davies's topical approach judiciously surveys the military, economic and political aspects of the war, often from an Eastern European perspective.

1968: The Year That Rocked the World by Mark Kurlanskyo Mark Kurlansky has pulled together an entertaining and enlightening

popular history with 1968: The Year That Rocked the World. With the Vietnam War and Soviet repression providing sparkplugs in the East and West, student movements heated up in Berkeley, Prague, Mexico City, Paris, and dozens of other hotspots. With youth in ascendancy, music, film, and athletics became generational battlegrounds between opposition forces that couldn't be more appalled with one another. Not so fortuitously, the Summer Olympics in Mexico City and a presidential election in the United States conspired to elevate the tension higher as months passed.

Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of his Life, Wartime Activities and the True Story Behind The List by David M. Crowe

o Oskar Schindler, a man with many flaws, risked his life and his fortune to save more Jews during the Holocaust than anyone else did. The definitive biography of Oskar Schindler.

I Have Lived A Thousand Years: Growing Up In The Holocaust: by Livia Bitton - Jacksono This Holocaust memoir describes what happens to a Jewish girl who is 13

when the Nazis invade Hungary in 1944. She tells of a year of roundups, transports, selections, camps, torture, forced labor, and shootings, then of liberation and the return of a few.

My Bridges of Hope: Searching for Life & Love after Auschwitz by Livia Bitton - Jackson

o The sequel to I Have Lived a Thousand Years covers the years between the end of the war in 1945 through the author's emigration from Europe to the United States in 1951. These years were filled with many things for Elli, as she was then known. Chief among them was her desire to learn as much as she could about her Jewish heritage and her commitment to it.

Perfect Hostage: A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's Prisoner of Conscience by Justin Wintle

o Burma is a country where, as one senior UN official puts it, "just to turn your head can mean imprisonment or death." Aung San Suu Kyi is considered to be Burma's best hope for freedom, and, because of her unwavering commitment to nonviolent resistance to the country's brutal military junta, she has been under house arrest since 1989. Elected Prime Minister, she was prevented from taking office, but despite failing health, vilification at the hands of the Burmese media, and actual imprisonment in one of the world's most appalling jails, Suu Kyi has persevered in a campaign of nonviolent protest as unflagging as those of Gandhi, King, and Mandela, which earned her the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. In Perfect Hostage, the most thorough biography of Suu Kyi to date, Justin Wintle tells both the story of the Burmese people and the story of an ordinary person who became a hero

In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer by Irene Opdykeo When World War II began, Irene Gutowna was a 17-year-old Polish nursing

student. Six years later, she writes in this inspiring memoir, "I felt a million years old." In the intervening time she was separated from her family, raped by Russian soldiers, and forced to work in a hotel serving German officers. Sickened by the suffering inflicted on the local Jews, Irene began leaving food under the walls of the ghetto. Soon she was scheming to protect the Jewish workers she supervised at the hotel, and then hiding them in the lavish villa where she served as housekeeper to a German major. When he discovered them in the house, Gutowna became his mistress to protect her friends--later escaping him to join the Polish partisans during the Germans' retreat.

Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Robert D. Kaplan

o Soldiers of God is a first-hand narrative of journalist Robert Kaplan's travels with the Mujahideen in Afghanistan during the waning days of the Soviet occupation. Set in the late 1980s. Soldiers of God imparts a clear understanding of the background conditions that led to the rise of the Taliban and the influence of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. This is the story of a third-world nation that was brutalized by the Soviets, then manipulated and mismanaged by the Pakistani agents who were acting as U.S. surrogates

The Vietnam War: A Concise International History by Marc Atwood Lawrenceo This book sifts through centuries of struggle in the small Southeast Asian

nation, beginning with the Trung sisters' first century fight to throw off Chinese domination, to illustrate how America, for the Vietnamese, was just another in a long line of ultimately vanquished enemies.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress: A Novel by Dai Sijie

o The Cultural Revolution of Chairman Mao Zedong altered Chinese history in the 1960s and '70s, forcibly sending hundreds of thousands of Chinese intellectuals to peasant villages for "re-education." This short novel tells how two young men weather years of banishment, emphasizing the power of literature to free the mind. An unnamed 17-year-old protagonist and his best friend, Luo, are bourgeois doctors' sons, and so condemned to serve four years in a remote mountain village, carrying pails of excrement daily up a hill. Only their ingenuity helps them to survive.

We were Soldiers Once...And Young: Ia Drang--The Battle That Changed The War In Vietnam by Harold G. Moore & Joseph L. Galloway

o In the first significant engagement between American troops and the Viet Cong, 450 U.S. soldiers found themselves surrounded and outnumbered by their enemy. This book tells the story of how they battled between October 23 and November 26, 1965. Its prose is gritty, not artful, delivering a powerful punch of here-and-now descriptions that could only have been written by people actually on the scene. In fact, they were: Harold Moore commanded the men of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, who did most of the fighting, and Joseph Galloway was the only reporter present throughout the battle's 34 harrowing days.

We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam by Harold G. Moore & Joseph L. Galloway

o This book tells the back-story of two of the Vietnam War's bloodiest battles (in which Moore participated as a lieutenant colonel), their first book and a 1993 ABC-TV documentary that brought them back to the battlefield. Moore's strong first-person voice reviews the basics of the November 1965 battles, part of the 34-day Battle of the Ia Drang Valley. Among other things, Moore and Galloway (who covered the battle for UPI) offer portraits of two former enemy commanders, generals Nguyen Huu An and Chu Huy Man, whom the authors met—and bonded with—nearly three decades after the battle

Crossing the Rhine: Breaking into Nazi Germany 1944 and 1945-The Greatest Airborne Battles in History by Lloyd Clark

o Two battles anchor this narrative of Allied efforts to cross the Rhine at WWII's climax. The first is the famous Operation Market-Garden, during which British paratroopers seized a Rhine bridge and were virtually wiped out by German counterattacks. The second is Operation Plunder-Varsity, a set piece crossing by a huge Allied force, including a superfluous airborne attack, that bulldozed through flimsy German defenses in the war's closing days. Although Plunder-Varsity lacked Market-Garden's drama, British

military historian Clark tells both sagas, including planning meetings, harrowing parachute descents and foxhole firefights; he sets the battles in the context of the bitter strategic debates between British and American generals.

The Somme: The Darkest Hour on the Western Front by Peter Harto A masterful synthesis of the human and the operational aspects of a

campaign that increasingly defines the British experience in the Great War. Hart vividly presents the runup to the Big Push expected to end the war; the disaster of July 1, 1916, when the British army suffered nearly 60,000 casualties; and the numbing months of attrition as British troops bled against the German defenses. Hart describes the horror as reflecting not the stupidity of individual generals and politicians but the determination of nations to resolve their differences by a war fought to the finish.

Hell's Cartel: IG Farben and the Making of Hitler's War Machine by Diarmuid Jeffreys

o A compelling account of the comprehensive collaboration of Germany's major chemical conglomerate with Adolf Hitler's genocidal dictatorship. The fourth largest industrial concern in the world, IG Farben was a key element of German foreign policy. Its employees were well treated. Its scientists won Nobel prizes. Its administrators created an international network controlling the production and sale of everything from plastics to camera film—and poison gas. Jeffreys tells the story from the rise of Germany's chemical industry in the 19th century to its support of the Nazis' ascent to power starting in 1932. National Socialism was good for business. The increasingly lucrative contracts came with a price: first accommodation, then collaboration, as one compromise after another enmeshed the cartel ever deeper in the Nazi system. Eventually, from Farben's perspective, Auschwitz was no more than a source of labor for producing the synthetic rubber and oil that kept the war machine operating. Ignominiously dissolved in the early '50s, IG Farben remains a monument to willful and unapologetic moral blindness.

Novel without a Name by Duong Thu Huong

o Vietnamese novelist Huong, who fought for North Vietnam and has been imprisoned for her political beliefs, presents American readers a startlingly different perspective on the war, from that of a disillusioned soldier in a book that was banned in her native country.

Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh

o Share the individual problems of loyalty and responsibility faced by the principal figures in a little village on the frontier between India and Pakistan where the action takes place. In the summer of 1947, a train full of dead Sikhs stirs up a battlefield in the peaceful atmosphere of love and loyalty between the Muslims and the Sikhs. It is then left to Juggat Singh-

the village gangster who is in love with a Muslim girl- to redeem himself by saving many Muslim lives.

Munich, 1938: Appeasement and World War II by David Fabero In this important reappraisal of the extraordinary events of seventy years

ago, acclaimed historian David Faber traces the key incidents leading up to the meeting at Munich and its immediate aftermath. He describes Lord Halifax's ill-fated visit to Hitler; Chamberlain's secret negotiations with Mussolini, followed by the resignation of Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden; and the Berlin scandal that rocked Hitler's regime.

Germany 1945: From War to Peace by Richard Besselo 1945 was the most pivotal year in Germany's modern history. The last

months of the war were its bloodiest, as the Allied assault on Nazi Germany reached its climax. In January alone, as many as one million people died violent deaths the terrible suffering of these months in the destroyed cities; the acts of vengeance inflicted on Germans by the conquering Soviets, French, and Americans; as well as death marches and the extreme brutality of the Nazi regime against its own people. In spite of this horrific violence, by the end of 1945 people were beginning to put their lives back together and create the foundations of a postwar social, economic, and political culture.

The Longest Night: The Bombing of London on May 10, 1941 by Gavin Mortimer

o By September 1940 the Battle of Britain had ended. Hitler's attempt to destroy British airfields and pave the way for an amphibious invasion had failed. Instead, the Luftwaffe switched to terror bombing of British cities. From September 1940 through May 1941, British civilians, especially Londoners, endured the horrors of the "Blitz." The bombing campaign reached its height on May 10, when a massive German raid on London shattered water mains and set large parts of the city ablaze.

Hitler and Nazi Germany by Jackson J. Spielvogel , David Redles

o This brief yet comprehensive survey of the Third Reich, based on current research findings, provides a balanced approach in examining Hitler's role in the history of the Third Reich. Coverage encompasses the economic, social, and political forces that made possible the rise and growth of Nazism as well as the institutional, cultural, and social life of the Third Reich; the Second World War; and the Holocaust.

Leningrad: State of Siege by Michael Jones o During the famed 900-day siege of Leningrad, the German High Command

deliberately planned to eradicate the city’s population through starvation. Viewing the Slavs as sub-human, Hitler embarked on a vicious program of ethnic cleansing. By the time the siege ended in January 1944, almost a million people had died. Those who survived would be marked permanently by what they endured as the city descended into chaos.

DAY OF THE PANZER: A Story of American Heroism and Sacrifice in Southern Franceby Jeff Danby

o A rarely detailed "you are there" account of World War II combat, describing a brief but bloody tank/infantry action in August 1944. Based on six years of research-drawing from interviews, primary documents, and visits to the battlefield-"The Day of the Panzer" transports the reader into the ranks of L Company, 15th Regiment, Third Infantry Division, and its supporting M4s of the 756th Tank Battalion as they grapple head-on with the Wehrmacht.

Hitler: A Biography by Ian Kershaw

War Child: A Child Soldier's Story by Emmanuel Jalo As a young kid barely able to carry a gun, Jal, one of the Lost Boys of

Sudan, witnessed and perpetrated unspeakable brutality in his country’s civil war, but he has not only found refuge in the U.S. but also become an international rap star for peace. His violent memories are graphically relayed in this powerful autobiography

The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China by Jay Taylor

o This lucid biography describes an impressive figure who left China a greater legacy than he has been given credit for. An ambitious officer, Chiang took power when Sun Yat-sen died in 1925. Attempting to unify a chaotic nation, he fought warlords and rival Communists and then spent nine even bloodier years fighting the Japanese.

Unbroken Will: The Extraordinary Courage of an Ordinary Man by Bernhard Rammerstorfer

o A 103-Year-Old Nazi Concentration Camp Survivor Exposes the Darkest Chapter in History Seventy years after the imprisonment of Leopold Engleitner (born 1905) by the Nazis, author Bernhard Rammerstorfer narrates Engleitners remarkable life and Nazis atrocities during one of the dark epochs of world history in a poignant biography entitled Unbroken Will.

Flight from the Reich: Refugee Jews, 1933-1946 by Debórah Dwork & Robert Jan van Pelt

o A comprehensive survey of various countries' responses to the refugee crisis and their often self-serving motives America, fearing immigrants would become public charges, required financial affidavits from American family or friends, which proved insurmountable for most European Jews.

Valkyrie by Philip Freiherr Von Boeselagero A rare firsthand memoir by a participant, this narrative gives a personal account of the events and

conspirators' motives.

Plotting Hitler's Death: The Story of German Resistance by Joachim C. Festo A compelling survey of the German resistance, Fest focuses on the men and

women whose rejection of Nazism culminated in the July 20, 1944, attempt on Hitler's life. Carl Goerdeler, Claus von Stauffenberg and most of their counterparts were slow to accept the need to act until well into the war.

Yalta: The Price of Peace by S. M. Plokhyo Harvard historian Plokhy describes Yalta in the context of a clash between

different approaches to international relations. FDR was a liberal internationalist. Churchill and Stalin saw the world in terms of power and interests. And with the Red Army only 50 miles from Berlin, Stalin held the trump cards. This detailed and highly engrossing narrative of the negotiations shows that the West did reasonably well. Roosevelt's agenda was global. He secured Stalin's commitment to join the war against Japan and participate in the U.N. Churchill, focused on Europe, preserved British interests in the Mediterranean. Stalin achieved recognition of the U.S.S.R.'s great-power status and a sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. The Yalta agreement was not the first conflict of the cold war but just a step toward a cold war that emerged only after three more years of failed negotiations.

Number the Stars by Lois Lowryo The evacuation of Jews from Nazi-held Denmark is one of the great untold

stories of World War II. On September 29, 1943, word got out in Denmark that Jews were to be detained and then sent to the death camps. Within hours the Danish resistance, population and police arranged a small flotilla to herd 7,000 Jews to Sweden. Lois Lowry fictionalizes a true-story account to bring this courageous tale to life. She brings the experience to life through the eyes of 10-year-old Annemarie Johannesen, whose family harbors her best friend, Ellen Rosen, on the eve of the round-up and helps smuggles Ellen's family out of the country.

The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reisso Johanna Reiss depicts the trials of her Dutch-Jewish family during World War II. . .

. The youngest of three daughters tells how she and her sister hid for more than two years in the upstairs room of the peasant Oosterveld family.

Valley of Death: The Tragedy at Dien Bien Phu That Led America into the Vietnam War by Ted Morgan

o A comprehensive spectrum of overlooked sources in this magisterial analysis of the 1954 French defeat at Dien Bien Phu and its consequences. The battle ended French colonial rule in Indochina and set the stage for American involvement in Vietnam, as unwanted initially as it was tragic in the end. The French, in November 1953, decided to establish a base in the remote valley of Dien Bien Phu. They were convinced the garrison could be supplied and supported by air, and Vietminh reaction thwarted by the roadless mountains and impenetrable jungles. Both assumptions were mistaken. Morgan, himself a veteran of the French army, eloquently describes the envelopment, the strangling, and the crushing of the French garrison by a people's army of Vietnamese peasants in the face of no less determined defenders.

The Girl in the Red Coat by Roma Ligockao As a young child, in the Krakow ghetto, Ligocka was known to everyone by the

strawberry-red coat she always wore-an image that Steven Spielberg would use in Schindler's List, without knowing anything about Ligocka herself. Determined to tell her own story, Ligocka gives a harrowing, impressionistic account of her early memories of the ghetto: the men in shiny black boots with snarling dogs, the endless waiting in lines, people shot indiscriminately and her grandmother's seizure by SS officers while Ligocka hides under a table. Ligocka and her mother sneak out of the ghetto and are taken in by a Polish family; her father, taken to Auschwitz, escapes several years later. In a poignant episode, the little girl doesn't recognize this haggard specter who wants to embrace her. The memoir also describes Ligocka's youth in Communist Krakow: her career as an actress in theater and films, her struggle as an adult to confront her frightful memories and the weathering of new crises, from the passing of her parents to political turmoil in Poland.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Directions: Answer the following questions thoughtfully. The Roman Numerals correspond to the chapters in the book.

I LAYING PLANS 1. Why is the art of war of vital importance to the state? 2. What are the five constant factors governing the art of war? Explain each one. 3. How is warfare based on deception?

II WAGING WAR 1. What does Sun Tzu say about the length of war?

III ATTACK BY STRATAGEM 1. Explain the method of attacking by stratagem. 2. What are the ways a ruler can bring misfortune upon his army? 3. What are the essentials of victory?

IV TACTICAL DISPOSITIONS 1. Sun Tzu says “a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease”. Explain the points he uses to support that statement.

V ENERGY 1. Explain the two methods of attack.

VI WEAK POINTS AND STRONG 1. Explain at least two tactics Sun Tzu describes in this section.

VII MANEUVERING 1. What is the difficulty of maneuvering? 2. Explain point # 19.

Vll VARIATION IN TACTICS 1. What are the five dangerous faults that may affect a general?

IX THE ARMY ON THE MARCH 1. Explain points # 42, 43, 44, and 45.

X TERRAIN 1. What are the six types of terrain? Define each one. 2. What are the six calamities caused by the general?

XI THE NINE SITUATIONS 1. What are the nine varieties of ground and why should a general know them

all well?

XII THE ATTACK BY FIRE 1. What are the five ways of attacking by fire?

XIII THE USE OF SPIES 1. Define the five types of spies. 2. Why are spies important, according to Sun Tzu?

Book Report RubricInclude this rubric with your report (stapled on Back)

Typed: 2+ pages, double spaced, 12 font, Times New Roman

16-20 pts. 11-15 pts. 6-10 pts. 1-5 pts.

Ideas / Plot The plot/writing is clear, focused and

easy to follow.

The plot/writing is somewhat hard to

follow.

The plot/writing is difficult to identify.

Writing is confused and the plot not present.

Details & Content Details are sufficient.

Some details provided.

Inadequate amount of details.

Little to no details

Organization/Structure

Sentences and paragraphs are clear and well

structured.

Structure may be present, but order

and writing are unclear.

Lacking sufficient structure or transitions in

sentences and/or paragraphs.

Lacks structure and transitions.

Introduction &Closure

Introduction/closure grabs and draws

audience in.

Introduction/closure is present but

lacking structure.

Either the introduction or closure are not

evident.

Word choice, Conventions

(commas, quotes, parts of speech)

& Spelling

Accurate, specific, powerful words are used. There are no errors. There are no

spelling errors.

Adequate use of word choice. One to

two convention errors. There is one

spelling error.

Inadequate use of word choice. Three to four

convention errors. There are two to

three spelling errors.

Little attempt to choose words

wisely. Five or more convention errors. Four or

more errors.

Finished Product

Report is 2+ pages and typed w/

double space or 3+

pages andneatly written in

pen.

Report is not a “finished” product.

Total /120

Timeliness: -1/2 credit for one day late