Best Selling Latin American History Books

Chart of the top 50 most popular and best selling Latin America history books on Apple Books.

Chart list of the top Latin America history eBooks was last updated:

History Ebook Best Sellers

Most Popular Latin American History Books Chart 2026

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Cuba (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize) - Ada Ferrer Cover Art

Cuba (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize)

Cuba (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize) An American History by Ada Ferrer

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE IN HISTORY WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE IN HISTORY “Full of…lively insights and lucid prose” ( The Wall Street Journal ) an epic, sweeping history of Cuba and its complex ties to the United States—from before the arrival of Columbus to the present day—written by one of the world’s leading historians of Cuba. In 1961, at the height of the Cold War, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba, where a momentous revolution had taken power three years earlier. For more than half a century, the stand-off continued—through the tenure of ten American presidents and the fifty-year rule of Fidel Castro. His death in 2016, and the retirement of his brother and successor Raúl Castro in 2021, have spurred questions about the country’s future. Meanwhile, politics in Washington—Barack Obama’s opening to the island, Donald Trump’s reversal of that policy, and the election of Joe Biden—have made the relationship between the two nations a subject of debate once more. Now, award-winning historian Ada Ferrer delivers an “important” ( The Guardian ) and moving chronicle that demands a new reckoning with both the island’s past and its relationship with the United States. Spanning more than five centuries, Cuba: An American History provides us with a front-row seat as we witness the evolution of the modern nation, with its dramatic record of conquest and colonization, of slavery and freedom, of independence and revolutions made and unmade. Along the way, Ferrer explores the sometimes surprising, often troubled intimacy between the two countries, documenting not only the influence of the United States on Cuba but also the many ways the island has been a recurring presence in US affairs. This is a story that will give Americans unexpected insights into the history of their own nation and, in so doing, help them imagine a new relationship with Cuba; “readers will close [this] fascinating book with a sense of hope” ( The Economist ). Filled with rousing stories and characters, and drawing on more than thirty years of research in Cuba, Spain, and the United States—as well as the author’s own extensive travel to the island over the same period—this is a stunning and monumental account like no other.

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The Lost City of Z - David Grann Cover Art

The Lost City of Z

The Lost City of Z A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Wager comes a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction “with all the pace and excitement of a movie thriller”( The New York Times ) that unravels the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century—the story of the legendary British explorer who ventured into the Amazon jungle in search of a fabled civilization and never returned. "[Grann is] one of the preeminent adventure and true-crime writers working today."— New York Magazine After stumbling upon a hidden trove of diaries, acclaimed writer David Grann set out to determine what happened to the British explorer Percy Fawcett and his quest for the Lost City of Z. For centuries Europeans believed the Amazon, the world’s largest rain forest, concealed the glittering kingdom of El Dorado. Thousands had died looking for it, leaving many scientists convinced that the Amazon was truly inimical to humankind. In 1925 Fawcett ventured into the Amazon to find an ancient civilization, hoping to make one of the most important discoveries in history. Then he vanished. Over the years countless perished trying to find evidence of his party and the place he called “The Lost City of Z.”   In this masterpiece, journalist David Grann interweaves the spellbinding stories of Fawcett’s quest for “Z” and his own journey into the deadly jungle. Look for David Grann’s latest bestselling book, The Wager !

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The Conquest of New Spain - Bernal Diaz Del Castillo Cover Art

The Conquest of New Spain

The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz Del Castillo

Bernal Diaz was an eyewitness to one of history's most remarkable events - the conquest of the Empire of the Aztecs, and the defeat of their Emperor Montezuma. The indomitable Diaz delivers his chronicle first-hand, vividly describing the ruthless battles, the brilliant Machiavellian strategies of Cortes, and the superstitions vacillations of Montezuma that lead to the momentous overthrow of the Aztec civilization. Despite the supremacy of their weapons and armour, the Spanish "Conquistadors" overcame astonishing odds to achieve victory.  Numbering only around 500, but powerfully motivated by a lust for gold and honor, the Spanish succeeded in either defeating or outwitting armies that numbered in the tens of thousands, before laying siege to Tenochtitlan - at the time the largest city in the known world. This is a truly astonishing text - all the more so for being true - and is both essential and enjoyable reading for anyone interested in World History. This text has been specifically designed for e-readers and contains color images, illustrations and maps, as well as an interactive table of contents for ease of navigation.

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Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest - Matthew Restall Cover Art

Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest

Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest by Matthew Restall

Here is an intriguing exploration of the ways in which the history of the Spanish Conquest has been misread and passed down to become popular knowledge of these events. The book offers a fresh account of the activities of the best-known conquistadors and explorers, including Columbus, Cortés, and Pizarro. Using a wide array of sources, historian Matthew Restall highlights seven key myths, uncovering the source of the inaccuracies and exploding the fallacies and misconceptions behind each myth. This vividly written and authoritative book shows, for instance, that native Americans did not take the conquistadors for gods and that small numbers of vastly outnumbered Spaniards did not bring down great empires with stunning rapidity. We discover that Columbus was correctly seen in his lifetime--and for decades after--as a briefly fortunate but unexceptional participant in efforts involving many southern Europeans. It was only much later that Columbus was portrayed as a great man who fought against the ignorance of his age to discover the new world. Another popular misconception--that the Conquistadors worked alone--is shattered by the revelation that vast numbers of black and native allies joined them in a conflict that pitted native Americans against each other. This and other factors, not the supposed superiority of the Spaniards, made conquests possible. The Conquest, Restall shows, was more complex--and more fascinating--than conventional histories have portrayed it. Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest offers a richer and more nuanced account of a key event in the history of the Americas.

5

The Black Jacobins - C.L.R. James & David Scott Cover Art

The Black Jacobins

The Black Jacobins Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution by C.L.R. James & David Scott

A powerful and impassioned historical account of the largest successful revolt by enslaved people in history: the Haitian Revolution of 1791–1803 “One of the seminal texts about the history of slavery and abolition.... Provocative and empowering.” — The New York Times Book Review The Black Jacobins, by Trinidadian historian C. L. R. James, was the first major analysis of the uprising that began in the wake of the storming of the Bastille in France and became the model for liberation movements from Africa to Cuba. It is the story of the French colony of San Domingo, a place where the brutality of plantation owners toward enslaved people was horrifyingly severe. And it is the story of a charismatic and barely literate enslaved person named Toussaint L’Ouverture, who successfully led the Black people of San Domingo against successive invasions by overwhelming French, Spanish, and English forces—and in the process helped form the first independent post-colonial nation in the Caribbean. With a new introduction (2023) by Professor David Scott.

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The Lost City of the Monkey God - Douglas Preston Cover Art

The Lost City of the Monkey God

The Lost City of the Monkey God A True Story by Douglas Preston

The #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, named one of the best books of the year by The Boston Globe and National Geographic: acclaimed journalist Douglas Preston takes readers on a true adventure deep into the Honduran rainforest in this riveting narrative about the discovery of a lost civilization -- culminating in a stunning medical mystery. Since the days of conquistador Hernán Cortés, rumors have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior, called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God. Indigenous tribes speak of ancestors who fled there to escape the Spanish invaders, and they warn that anyone who enters this sacred city will fall ill and die. In 1940, swashbuckling journalist Theodore Morde returned from the rainforest with hundreds of artifacts and an electrifying story of having found the Lost City of the Monkey God-but then committed suicide without revealing its location. Three quarters of a century later, bestselling author Doug Preston joined a team of scientists on a groundbreaking new quest. In 2012 he climbed aboard a rickety, single-engine plane carrying the machine that would change everything: lidar, a highly advanced, classified technology that could map the terrain under the densest rainforest canopy. In an unexplored valley ringed by steep mountains, that flight revealed the unmistakable image of a sprawling metropolis, tantalizing evidence of not just an undiscovered city but an enigmatic, lost civilization. Venturing into this raw, treacherous, but breathtakingly beautiful wilderness to confirm the discovery, Preston and the team battled torrential rains, quickmud, disease-carrying insects, jaguars, and deadly snakes. But it wasn't until they returned that tragedy struck: Preston and others found they had contracted in the ruins a horrifying, sometimes lethal-and incurable-disease. Suspenseful and shocking, filled with colorful history, hair-raising adventure, and dramatic twists of fortune, THE LOST CITY OF THE MONKEY GOD is the absolutely true, eyewitness account of one of the great discoveries of the twenty-first century.

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Conquistador - Buddy Levy Cover Art

Conquistador

Conquistador Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs by Buddy Levy

In an astonishing work of scholarship that reads like an adventure thriller, historian Buddy Levy records the last days of the Aztec empire and the two men at the center of an epic clash of cultures. “I and my companions suffer from a disease of the heart which can be cured only with gold.” — Hernán Cortés It was a moment unique in human history, the face-to-face meeting between two men from civilizations a world apart. Only one would survive the encounter. In 1519, Hernán Cortés arrived on the shores of Mexico with a roughshod crew of adventurers and the intent to expand the Spanish empire. Along the way, this brash and roguish conquistador schemed to convert the native inhabitants to Catholicism and carry off a fortune in gold. That he saw nothing paradoxical in his intentions is one of the most remarkable—and tragic—aspects of this unforgettable story of conquest. In Tenochtitlán, the famed City of Dreams, Cortés met his Aztec counterpart, Montezuma: king, divinity, ruler of fifteen million people, and commander of the most powerful military machine in the Americas. Yet in less than two years, Cortés defeated the entire Aztec nation in one of the most astonishing military campaigns ever waged. Sometimes outnumbered in battle thousands-to-one, Cortés repeatedly beat seemingly impossible odds. Buddy Levy meticulously researches the mix of cunning, courage, brutality, superstition, and finally disease that enabled Cortés and his men to survive. Conquistador is the story of a lost kingdom—a complex and sophisticated civilization where floating gardens, immense wealth, and reverence for art stood side by side with bloodstained temples and gruesome rites of human sacrifice. It’s the story of Montezuma—proud, spiritual, enigmatic, and doomed to misunderstand the stranger he thought a god. Epic in scope, as entertaining as it is enlightening, Conquistador is history at its most riveting. Praise for Conquistador “Prodigiously researched and stirringly told,  Conquistador  is a rarity: an invaluable history lesson that also happens to be a page-turning read.” —Jeremy Schaap, bestselling author of  Cinderella Man: James J. Braddock, Max Baer and the Greatest Upset in Boxing History,  and  Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler’s Olympics   “Sweeping and majestic . . . A pulse-quickening narrative.” —Neal Bascomb, author of  Red Mutiny: Eleven Fateful Days on the Battleship Potemkin

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Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba - Tom Gjelten Cover Art

Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba

Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba The Biography of a Cause by Tom Gjelten

In this widely hailed book, NPR correspondent Tom Gjelten fuses the story of the Bacardi family and their famous rum business with Cuba's tumultuous experience over the last 150 years to produce a deeply entertaining historical narrative. The company Facundo Bacardi launched in Cuba in 1862 brought worldwide fame to the island, and in the decades that followed his Bacardi descendants participated in every aspect of Cuban life. With his intimate account of their struggles and adventures across five generations, Gjelten brings to life the larger story of Cuba's fight for freedom, its tortured relationship with America, the rise of Fidel Castro, and the violent division of the Cuban nation.

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The True History of the Conquest of New Spain - Bernal Diaz Del Castillo Cover Art

The True History of the Conquest of New Spain

The True History of the Conquest of New Spain The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Unabridged Edition (Vol.1-2). by Bernal Diaz Del Castillo

The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Unabridged Edition (Vol.1-2). The author of this original and charming production, to which he justly gives the title of 'The True History of the Conquest of New Spain,' was himself one of the Conquistadores; one who not only witnessed the transactions which he relates, but who also performed a glorious part in them. "I, Bernal Diaz del Castillo, regidor of the town of Santiago, in Guatimala, author of this very true and faithful history, have now finished it, in order that it may be published to the world. It treats of the discovery and total conquest of New Spain; and how the great city of Mexico and several other towns were taken, up to the time when peace was concluded with the whole country; also of the founding of many Spanish cities and towns, by which we, as we were in duty bound, extended the dominion of our sovereign."

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La invasión de América - Antonio Espino . Cover Art

La invasión de América

La invasión de América Una nueva lectura de la conquista hispana de América: una historia de violencia y destrucción by Antonio Espino .

¿Por qué la sociedad española siempre ha creído en las bondades de la llamada conquista de América? ¿Fue en realidad un proceso civilizador, altruista y liberador? ¿Es justo considerar el imperialismo propio como un acto cualitativamente diferente al de otras naciones? ¿Debemos calificar a los conquistadores como héroes desde la óptica actual? Tras el desembarco de Cristóbal Colón en las Indias se inició la explotación de un vasto continente habitado por millones de personas. Durante varios siglos, las fuerzas hispanas desplegaron toda una serie de estrategias militares para derrocar a los imperios precolombinos y oprimir a las sociedades amerindias, usando con profusión el terror, la crueldad y la violencia extrema. Tácticas de combate fríamente calculadas que desencadenaron uno de los hechos más sangrientos de la historia moderna y cuyas consecuencias todavía hoy padecemos. El catedrático Antonio Espino ofrece en este libro una brillante crónica de la Conquista y analiza la historia militar y sus aspectos más brutales y sanguinarios. Una extraordinaria y documentada narración que permite observar bajo una nueva luz el brutal pasado del continente americano. Una luz que despoja los hechos de cualquier desviación mitificadora y de los reiterados intentos de buena parte de la historiografía conservadora hispánica de justificar la colonización, alegando una inequívoca intención civilizadora.

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The Last Days of the Incas - Kim MacQuarrie Cover Art

The Last Days of the Incas

The Last Days of the Incas by Kim MacQuarrie

The epic story of the fall of the Inca Empire to Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro in the aftermath of a bloody civil war, and the recent discovery of the lost guerrilla capital of the Incas, Vilcabamba, by three American explorers. In 1532, the fifty-four-year-old Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro led a force of 167 men, including his four brothers, to the shores of Peru. Unbeknownst to the Spaniards, the Inca rulers of Peru had just fought a bloody civil war in which the emperor Atahualpa had defeated his brother Huascar. Pizarro and his men soon clashed with Atahualpa and a huge force of Inca warriors at the Battle of Cajamarca. Despite being outnumbered by more than two hundred to one, the Spaniards prevailed—due largely to their horses, their steel armor and swords, and their tactic of surprise. They captured and imprisoned Atahualpa. Although the Inca emperor paid an enormous ransom in gold, the Spaniards executed him anyway. The following year, the Spaniards seized the Inca capital of Cuzco, completing their conquest of the largest native empire the New World has ever known. Peru was now a Spanish colony, and the conquistadors were wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. But the Incas did not submit willingly. A young Inca emperor, the brother of Atahualpa, soon led a massive rebellion against the Spaniards, inflicting heavy casualties and nearly wiping out the conquerors. Eventually, however, Pizarro and his men forced the emperor to abandon the Andes and flee to the Amazon. There, he established a hidden capital, called Vilcabamba—only recently rediscovered by a trio of colorful American explorers. Although the Incas fought a deadly, thirty-six-year-long guerrilla war, the Spanish ultimately captured the last Inca emperor and vanquished the native resistance.

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House of Rain - Craig Childs Cover Art

House of Rain

House of Rain Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest by Craig Childs

A "beautifully written travelogue" that draws on the latest scholarly research as well as a lifetime of exploration to light on the extraordinary Anasazi culture of the American Southwest ( Entertainment Weekly ).  The greatest "unsolved mystery" of the American Southwest is the fate of the Anasazi, the native peoples who in the eleventh century converged on Chaco Canyon (in today's southwestern New Mexico) and built what has been called the Las Vegas of its day, a flourishing cultural center that attracted pilgrims from far and wide, a vital crossroads of the prehistoric world. The Anasazis' accomplishments -- in agriculture, in art, in commerce, in architecture, and in engineering -- were astounding, rivaling those of the Mayans in distant Central America. By the thirteenth century, however, the Anasazi were gone from Chaco. Vanished. What was it that brought about the rapid collapse of their civilization? Was it drought? pestilence? war? forced migration? mass murder or suicide? For many years conflicting theories have abounded. Craig Childs draws on the latest scholarly research, as well as on a lifetime of adventure and exploration in the most forbidding landscapes of the American Southwest, to shed new light on this compelling mystery.

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Un veterano de tres guerras - Guillermo Parvex Cover Art

Un veterano de tres guerras

Un veterano de tres guerras by Guillermo Parvex

El best seller de la crónica histórica ahora se suma al catálogo de Ediciones B Reedición revisada y aumentada del best seller que reúne las experiencias del abogado y oficial de ejercito José Miguel Varela, en la Guerra del Pacifico, las Campañas de la Araucanía y Guerra Civil de 1891. Un libro que en su primera versión ha vendido más de 60 mil ejemplares y se ha convertido en un clásico de la crónica histórica. Esta nueva edición contempla un capítulo inédito sobre los años de José Miguel Varela trabajando como Notario en Valdivia, y su participación en la logia masónica. Este nuevo capítulo no corresponde a las memorias del soldado, sino a la investigación recogida por Guillermo Parvex luego de la publicación del libro.

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CHE GUEVARA: El Diario - Che Guevara Cover Art

CHE GUEVARA: El Diario

CHE GUEVARA: El Diario by Che Guevara

El diario del Che Guevara es un testimonio crudo y directo de la lucha revolucionaria en la cual Ernesto Che Guevara buscó extender la revolución socialista en América Latina. A través de sus anotaciones diarias, Guevara documenta los desafíos, sacrificios y frustraciones que enfrentó su grupo guerrillero mientras intentaban establecer un movimiento revolucionario en Bolivia. Este diario revela el agotamiento físico y psicológico de los combatientes, las dificultades logísticas, y la creciente sensación de aislamiento ante la falta de apoyo local e internacional. El texto es tanto un relato personal como un análisis político, donde Guevara reflexiona sobre las tácticas revolucionarias, las dificultades de la lucha armada y el papel de la ideología en su misión. A medida que la situación se torna cada vez más desesperada, el Che expresa su compromiso inquebrantable con la causa revolucionaria, a pesar de los reveses. Desde su publicación, El diario del Che en Bolivia ha sido objeto de análisis por su representación de la resistencia guerrillera y el fervor revolucionario de Guevara. Este documento ha inspirado a generaciones de activistas y sigue siendo una obra clave para entender no solo la vida del Che, sino también los movimientos insurgentes de América Latina. Su legado trasciende el fracaso militar en Bolivia, consolidando al Che como un símbolo de lucha y resistencia

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História Concisa do Brasil - Boris Fausto Cover Art

História Concisa do Brasil

História Concisa do Brasil by Boris Fausto

Os pressupostos básicos deste livro são a convicção de que é possível levar ao conhecimento de um público amplo uma história escrita em linguagem acessível, sem perda da qualidade analítica, e que buscar conhecer e interpretar o passado é condição indispensável para o cidadão situar-se no presente e avaliar as possibilidades e limites do futuro. A obra não é um simples resumo da História do Brasil , publicada na Coleção Didática da Edusp, embora mantenha a estrutura básica daquela. Boris Fausto consegue aqui tornar compreensíveis as linhas principais da história brasileira, cumprindo a tarefa de forma sintética e apresentando dados estatísticos recentes. Esta nova edição atualizada e ampliada conta com o acréscimo de um capítulo final de autoria do sociólogo Sérgio Fausto, abrangendo um balanço dos anos recentes, que vai até o final de 2010, e trazendo perspectivas de futuro.

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A Small Place - Jamaica Kincaid Cover Art

A Small Place

A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid

A brilliant look at colonialism and its effects in Antigua--by the author of Annie John "If you go to Antigua as a tourist, this is what you will see. If you come by aeroplane, you will land at the V. C. Bird International Airport. Vere Cornwall (V. C.) Bird is the Prime Minister of Antigua. You may be the sort of tourist who would wonder why a Prime Minister would want an airport named after him--why not a school, why not a hospital, why not some great public monument. You are a tourist and you have not yet seen . . ." So begins Jamaica Kincaid's expansive essay, which shows us what we have not yet seen of the ten-by-twelve-mile island in the British West Indies where she grew up. Lyrical, sardonic, and forthright by turns, in a Swiftian mode, A Small Place cannot help but amplify our vision of one small place and all that it signifies.

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River of Darkness - Buddy Levy Cover Art

River of Darkness

River of Darkness Francisco Orellana and the Deadly First Voyage through the Amazon by Buddy Levy

The acclaimed author of Labyrinth of Ice charts the legendary sixteenth-century adventurer's death-defying navigation of the Amazon River. In 1541, Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Pizarro and his lieutenant Francisco Orellana searched for La Canela, South America's rumored Land of Cinnamon, and the fabled El Dorado, "the golden man." Quickly, the enormous expedition of mercenaries, enslaved natives, horses, and hunting dogs were decimated through disease, starvation, and attacks in the jungle. Hopelessly lost in the swampy labyrinth, Pizarro and Orellana made the fateful decision to separate. While Pizarro eventually returned home in rags, Orellana and fifty-seven men continued into the unknown reaches of the mighty Amazon jungle and river. Theirs would be the greater glory. Interweaving historical accounts with newly uncovered details, Levy reconstructs Orellana's journey as the first European to navigate the world's largest river. Every twist and turn of the powerful Amazon holds new wonders and the risk of death. Levy gives a long-overdue account of the Amazon's people—some offering sustenance and guidance, others hostile, subjecting the invaders to gauntlets of unremitting attacks and signs of terrifying rituals. Violent and beautiful, noble and tragic, River of Darkness is riveting history and breathtaking adventure that will sweep readers on a voyage unlike any other. Praise for Buddy Levy and River of Darkness "In River of Darkness , Buddy Levy recounts Orellana's headlong dash down the Amazon. Like Mr. Levy's last book, Conquistador , about the conquest of Mexico, River of Darkness presents a fast-moving tale of triumph over seemingly insurmountable odds.  . . . Though impromptu, the expedition was one of the most amazing adventures of all time." — Wall Street Journal "An exciting, well-plotted excursion down the Amazon River with the early Spanish conquistador.  . . . [A] richly textured account of the rogue, rebel and visionary whose discovery still resonates today." — Kirkus Reviews "A rollicking adventure  . . . Levy successfully conveys the Amazon's power and majesty, while shedding light on the futility of humanity's attempt to tame it." — The A.V. Club

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The Path Between the Seas - David McCullough Cover Art

The Path Between the Seas

The Path Between the Seas The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 by David McCullough

The National Book Award–winning epic chronicle of the creation of the Panama Canal, a first-rate drama of the bold and brilliant engineering feat that transformed global trade routes and shaped modern American history, as told by Pulitzer Prize–winning author and master historian David McCullough. A national bestseller and testament to human determination, The Path Between the Seas tells the stories of the men and women who fought against all odds to fulfill the 400-year-old dream of constructing a maritime passageway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. McCullough masterfully recounts astonishing engineering and medical accomplishments, political power plays, heroic successes, and tragic failures. Applying his remarkable gift for writing lucid, lively exposition, McCullough weaves the many strands of the momentous event into a comprehensive and captivating tale. Winner of the National Book Award for history, the Francis Parkman Prize, the Samuel Eliot Morison Award, and the Cornelius Ryan Award (for the best book of the year on international affairs), The Path Between the Seas is a must-read for anyone interested in American history, technological innovation, international intrigue, and human drama.

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Deep Down Dark - Héctor Tobar Cover Art

Deep Down Dark

Deep Down Dark The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free by Héctor Tobar

Deep Down Dark is the novel that inspired the film The 33 starring Lou Diamond Phillips, Cote de Pablo and Antonio Banderas. When the San José mine collapsed outside of Copiapó, Chile, in August 2010, it trapped thirty-three miners beneath thousands of feet of rock for a record-breaking sixty-nine days. After the disaster, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Héctor Tobar received exclusive access to the miners and their tales, and in Deep Down Dark, he brings them to haunting, visceral life. We learn what it was like to be imprisoned inside a mountain, understand the horror of being slowly consumed by hunger, and experience the awe of working in such a place-underground passages filled with danger and that often felt alive. A masterwork of narrative journalism and a stirring testament to the power of the human spirit, The 33: Deep Down Dark captures the profound ways in which the lives of everyone involved in the catastrophe were forever changed. A Finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award A Finalist for a Los Angeles Times Book Prize A New York Times Book Review Notable Book Selected for NPR's Morning Edition Book Club

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Alive - Piers Paul Read Cover Art

Alive

Alive The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read

#1 New York Times Bestseller: The true story behind Netflix's Society of the Snow —A rugby team resorts to the unthinkable after a plane crash in the Andes. Spirits were high when the Fairchild F-227 took off from Mendoza, Argentina, and headed for Santiago, Chile. On board were forty-five people, including an amateur rugby team from Uruguay and their friends and family. The skies were clear that Friday, October 13, 1972, and at 3:30 p.m., the Fairchild's pilot reported their altitude at 15,000 feet. But one minute later, the Santiago control tower lost all contact with the aircraft. For eight days, Chileans, Uruguayans, and Argentinians searched for it, but snowfall in the Andes had been heavy, and the odds of locating any wreckage were slim. Ten weeks later, a Chilean peasant in a remote valley noticed two haggard men desperately gesticulating to him from across a river. He threw them a pen and paper, and the note they tossed back read: "I come from a plane that fell in the mountains . . ." Sixteen passengers survived its horrific crash. In the remote glacial wilderness, they camped in the plane's fuselage, where they faced freezing temperatures, life-threatening injuries, an avalanche, and imminent starvation. As their meager food supplies ran out, and after they heard on a patched-together radio that the search parties had been called off, it seemed like all hope was lost. To save their own lives, these men and women not only had to keep their faith, they had to make an impossible decision: Should they eat the flesh of their dead friends? A remarkable story of endurance and determination, friendship and the human spirit, Alive is "a classic in the literature of survival" ( Newsweek ).

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Empire of Blue Water - Stephan Talty Cover Art

Empire of Blue Water

Empire of Blue Water Captain Morgan's Great Pirate Army, the Epic Battle for the Americas, and the Catastrophe That Ended the Outlaws' Bloody Reign by Stephan Talty

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Talty’s vigorous history of seventeenth-century pirates of the Caribbean [is] a pleasure to read from bow to stern.”— Entertainment Weekly   “In Stephan Talty’s hands, the brilliant Captain Morgan, wicked and cutthroat though he was, proves an irresistible hero. . . . A thrilling and fascinating adventure.”—Caroline Alexander, author of The Endurance and The Bounty   The passion and violence of the age of exploration and empire come to vivid life in this story of the legendary pirate who took on the greatest military power on earth with a ragtag bunch of renegades. Awash with bloody battles, political intrigues, natural disaster, and a cast of characters more compelling, bizarre, and memorable than any found in a Hollywood swashbuckler, Empire of Blue Water brilliantly re-creates the life and times of Henry Morgan and the real pirates of the Caribbean.

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The Sugar King of Havana - John Paul Rathbone Cover Art

The Sugar King of Havana

The Sugar King of Havana The Rise and Fall of Julio Lobo, Cuba's Last Tycoon by John Paul Rathbone

"Fascinating...A richly detailed portrait." -Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times Known in his day as the King of Sugar, Julio Lobo was the wealthiest man in prerevolutionary Cuba. He had a life fit for Hollywood: he barely survived both a gangland shooting and a firing squad, and courted movie stars such as Joan Fontaine and Bette Davis. Only when he declined Che Guevara's personal offer to become Minister of Sugar in the Communist regime did Lobo's decades-long reign in Cuba come to a dramatic end. Drawing on stories from the author's own family history and other tales of the island's lost haute bourgeoisie, The Sugar King of Havana is a rare portrait of Cuba's glittering past—and a hopeful window into its future.

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Open Veins of Latin America - Eduardo Galeano Cover Art

Open Veins of Latin America

Open Veins of Latin America Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent by Eduardo Galeano

The classic survey of Latin America's social and cultural history, with a new introduction by Isabel Allende Since its U.S. debut a quarter-century ago, this brilliant text has set a new standard for historical scholarship of Latin America. It is also an outstanding political economy, a social and cultural narrative of the highest quality, and perhaps the finest description of primitive capital accumulation since Marx. Rather than chronology, geography, or political successions, Eduardo Galeano has organized the various facets of Latin American history according to the patterns of five centuries of exploitation. Thus he is concerned with gold and silver, cacao and cotton, rubber and coffee, fruit, hides and wool, petroleum, iron, nickel, manganese, copper, aluminum ore, nitrates, and tin. These are the veins which he traces through the body of the entire continent, up to the Rio Grande and throughout the Caribbean, and all the way to their open ends where they empty into the coffers of wealth in the United States and Europe. Weaving fact and imagery into a rich tapestry, Galeano fuses scientific analysis with the passions of a plundered and suffering people. An immense gathering of materials is framed with a vigorous style that never falters in its command of themes. All readers interested in great historical, economic, political, and social writing will find a singular analytical achievement, and an overwhelming narrative that makes history speak, unforgettably. This classic is now further honored by Isabel Allende’s inspiring introduction. Universally recognized as one of the most important writers of our time, Allende once again contributes her talents to literature, to political principles, and to enlightenment.

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The Broken Spears - Miguel Leon-Portilla Cover Art

The Broken Spears

The Broken Spears The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico by Miguel Leon-Portilla

For hundreds of years, the history of the conquest of Mexico and the defeat of the Aztecs has been told in the words of the Spanish victors. Miguel León-Portilla has long been at the forefront of expanding that history to include the voices of indigenous peoples. In this new and updated edition of his classic  The Broken Spears , León-Portilla has included accounts from native Aztec descendants across the centuries. These texts bear witness to the extraordinary vitality of an oral tradition that preserves the viewpoints of the vanquished instead of the victors. León-Portilla's new Postscript reflects upon the critical importance of these unexpected historical accounts.

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Haiti: The Aftershocks of History - Laurent Dubois Cover Art

Haiti: The Aftershocks of History

Haiti: The Aftershocks of History by Laurent Dubois

A passionate and insightful account by a leading historian of Haiti that traces the sources of the country's devastating present back to its turbulent and traumatic history Even before the 2010 earthquake destroyed much of the country, Haiti was known as a benighted place of poverty and corruption. Maligned and misunderstood, the nation has long been blamed by many for its own wretchedness. But as acclaimed historian Laurent Dubois makes clear, Haiti's troubled present can only be understood by examining its complex past. The country's difficulties are inextricably rooted in its founding revolution—the only successful slave revolt in the history of the world; the hostility that this rebellion generated among the colonial powers surrounding the island nation; and the intense struggle within Haiti itself to define its newfound freedom and realize its promise. Dubois vividly depicts the isolation and impoverishment that followed the 1804 uprising. He details how the crushing indemnity imposed by the former French rulers initiated a devastating cycle of debt, while frequent interventions by the United States—including a twenty-year military occupation—further undermined Haiti's independence. At the same time, Dubois shows, the internal debates about what Haiti should do with its hard-won liberty alienated the nation's leaders from the broader population, setting the stage for enduring political conflict. Yet as Dubois demonstrates, the Haitian people have never given up on their struggle for true democracy, creating a powerful culture insistent on autonomy and equality for all. Revealing what lies behind the familiar moniker of "the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere," this indispensable book illuminates the foundations on which a new Haiti might yet emerge.

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A Nation Rising - Kenneth C. Davis Cover Art

A Nation Rising

A Nation Rising Untold Tales of Flawed Founders, Fallen Heroes, and Forgotten Fighters from America’s Hidden History by Kenneth C. Davis

“History in Davis’s hands is loud, coarse, painful, funny, irreverent—and memorable.” — San Francisco Chronicle Following on his New York Times bestsellers America’s Hidden History and Don’t Know Much About History, Ken Davis explores the next chapter in the country’s hidden history: the gritty first half of the 19th century, among the most tumultuous in the nation’s short life.

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Sugar in the Blood - Andrea Stuart Cover Art

Sugar in the Blood

Sugar in the Blood A Family's Story of Slavery and Empire by Andrea Stuart

In the late 1630s, lured by the promise of the New World, Andrea Stuart’s earliest known maternal ancestor, George Ashby, set sail from England to settle in Barbados. He fell into the life of a sugar plantation owner by mere chance, but by the time he harvested his first crop, a revolution was fully under way: the farming of sugar cane, and the swiftly increasing demands for sugar worldwide, would not only lift George Ashby from abject poverty and shape the lives of his descendants, but it would also bind together ambitious white entrepreneurs and enslaved black workers in a strangling embrace. Stuart uses her own family story—from the seventeenth century through the present—as the pivot for this epic tale of migration, settlement, survival, slavery and the making of the Americas. As it grew, the sugar trade enriched Europe as never before, financing the Industrial Revolution and fuelling the Enlightenment. And, as well, it became the basis of many economies in South America, played an important part in the evolution of the United States as a world power and transformed the Caribbean into an archipelago of riches. But this sweet and hugely profitable trade—“white gold,” as it was known—had profoundly less palatable consequences in its precipitation of the enslavement of Africans to work the fields on the islands and, ultimately, throughout the American continents. Interspersing the tectonic shifts of colonial history with her family’s experience, Stuart explores the interconnected themes of settlement, sugar and slavery with extraordinary subtlety and sensitivity. In examining how these forces shaped her own family—its genealogy, intimate relationships, circumstances of birth, varying hues of skin—she illuminates how her family, among millions of others like it, in turn transformed the society in which they lived, and how that interchange continues to this day. Shifting between personal and global history, Stuart gives us a deepened understanding of the connections between continents, between black and white, between men and women, between the free and the enslaved. It is a story brought to life with riveting and unparalleled immediacy, a story of fundamental importance to the making of our world.

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Fifth Sun - Camilla Townsend Cover Art

Fifth Sun

Fifth Sun A New History of the Aztecs by Camilla Townsend

In November 1519, Hernando Cortés walked along a causeway leading to the capital of the Aztec kingdom and came face to face with Moctezuma. That story--and the story of what happened afterwards--has been told many times, but always following the narrative offered by the Spaniards. After all, we have been taught, it was the Europeans who held the pens. But the Native Americans were intrigued by the Roman alphabet and, unbeknownst to the newcomers, they used it to write detailed histories in their own language of Nahuatl. Until recently, these sources remained obscure, only partially translated, and rarely consulted by scholars. For the first time, in Fifth Sun, the history of the Aztecs is offered in all its complexity based solely on the texts written by the indigenous people themselves. Camilla Townsend presents an accessible and humanized depiction of these native Mexicans, rather than seeing them as the exotic, bloody figures of European stereotypes. The conquest, in this work, is neither an apocalyptic moment, nor an origin story launching Mexicans into existence. The Mexica people had a history of their own long before the Europeans arrived and did not simply capitulate to Spanish culture and colonization. Instead, they realigned their political allegiances, accommodated new obligations, adopted new technologies, and endured. This engaging revisionist history of the Aztecs, told through their own words, explores the experience of a once-powerful people facing the trauma of conquest and finding ways to survive, offering an empathetic interpretation for experts and non-specialists alike.

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El Narco - Ioan Grillo Cover Art

El Narco

El Narco Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency by Ioan Grillo

"Essential reading."-Steve Coll, NewYorker.com A gripping, sobering account of how Mexican drug gangs have transformed into a criminal insurgency that threatens the nation's democracy and reaches across to the United States. The world has watched, stunned, the bloodshed in Mexico. Forty thousand murdered since 2006; police chiefs shot within hours of taking office; mass graves comparable to those of civil wars; car bombs shattering storefronts; headless corpses heaped in town squares. And it is all because a few Americans are getting high. Or is it part of a worldwide shadow economy that threatens Mexico's democracy? The United States throws Black Hawk helicopters, DEA assistance, and lots of money at the problem. But in secret, Washington is at a loss. Who are these mysterious figures who threaten Mexico's democracy? What is El Narco? El Narco is not a gang; it is a movement and an industry drawing in hundreds of thousands, from bullet-riddled barrios to marijuana-covered mountains. The conflict spawned by El Narco has given rise to paramilitary death squads battling from Guatemala to the Texas border (and sometimes beyond). In this "propulsive ... high-octane" book (Publishers Weekly), Ioan Grillo draws the first definitive portrait of Mexico's cartels and how they have radically transformed.

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Fire & Blood - T. R. Fehrenbach Cover Art

Fire & Blood

Fire & Blood A History of Mexico by T. R. Fehrenbach

Mexican history comes to life in this "fascinating" work by the author of Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans ( The Christian Science Monitor ). Fire & Blood brilliantly depicts the succession of tribes and societies that have variously called Mexico their home, their battleground, and their legacy. This is the tale of the indigenous people who forged from this rugged terrain a wide-ranging civilization; of the Olmec, Maya, Toltec, and Aztec dynasties, which exercised their sophisticated powers through bureaucracy and religion; of the Spanish conquistadors, whose arrival heralded death, disease, and a new vision of continental domination. Author T. R. Fehrenbach connects these threads with the story of modern-day, independent Mexico, a proud nation struggling to balance its traditions against opportunities that often seem tantalizingly out of reach.   From the Mesoamerican empires to the Spanish Conquest and the Mexican Revolution, peopled by the legendary personalities of Mexican history—Montezuma, Cortés, Santa Anna, Juárez, Maximilian, Díaz, Pancho Villa, and Zapata— Fire & Blood is a "deftly organized and well-researched" work of popular history ( Library Journal ) .

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Guerra Contra Todos los Puertorriqueños - Nelson A Denis Cover Art

Guerra Contra Todos los Puertorriqueños

Guerra Contra Todos los Puertorriqueños Revolución y Terror en la Colonia Americana by Nelson A Denis

"La poderosa e inédita historia de la revolución de 1950 en Puerto Rico y la larga historia de la intervención estadounidense en la isla, que el New York Times dice "no podría ser más oportuna." En 1950, después de cincuenta años de ocupación militar y gobierno colonial, el Partido Nacionalista de Puerto Rico montó una fallida revolución armada contra Estados Unidos. La violencia arraso con la isla: comandos nacionalistas fueron enviados a Washington a ajusticiar al presidente Harry Truman, se desataron tiroteos en ocho municipios, se incendiaron cuarteles policiacos y oficinas de correo. Para sofocar esta insurrección, el Ejército de Estados Unidos desplegó miles de tropas y ametralló dos pueblos desde el aire, marcando la primera vez en su historia que el gobierno estadounidense atacó de esta forma a sus propios ciudadanos. Por medio de narraciones orales, entrevistas personales, relatos de testigos oculares, testimonios del Congreso de Estados Unidos y archivos recientemente liberados al público por el FBI, Guerra Contra Todos los Puertorriqueños nos relata la historia de una revolución olvidada y su contexto en la historia grande de Puerto Rico, desde la invasión estadounidense de 1898 hasta la lucha actual por la plena autodeterminación de los puertorriqueños.

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Mexico: A History - Víctor Alba Cover Art

Mexico: A History

Mexico: A History by Víctor Alba

The early European explorers were astonished at the immensity of Mexico. They were equally baffled by the customs, language, and society of the people they encountered. A surprise awaited the visitors beyond every mountain pass, for in a land in which travel was so difficult, the native inhabitants had developed vastly different lifestyles. Historians and archeologists remain uncertain as to the origins of the earliest settlers or exactly when they arrived, but they had been living there for thousands of years before being "discovered" by the Spaniards. Fortunately for historians, some Spanish explorers recorded what they saw, even while Spanish armies were annihilating the native population and destroying the indigenous culture - tearing down temples, burning religious objects, melting down precious metal artifacts. And amidst the slaughter, Spanish friars continued their mission to convert the natives to Christianity, by whatever means. Here from noted journalist Victor Alba is the dramatic story of Mexico - from the Aztecs and Mayas to the age of viceroys and the Mexican Revolution. The country evolved through decades of civil wars and revolution, one government toppled then another until finally, a modern nation-state emerged. It's a history as vast and varied as the country itself.

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Bad Mexicans - Kelly Lytle Hernandez Cover Art

Bad Mexicans

Bad Mexicans Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands by Kelly Lytle Hernandez

Winner of the Bancroft Prize • Shortlisted for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction • Shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction • Shortlisted for the Mark Lynton History Prize • Longlisted for the National Book Award for Nonfiction • Longlisted for the Cundill History Prize One of The New Yorker's Best Books of 2022 • A Kirkus Reviews Best World History Book of 2022 • One of the Smithsonian's 10 Best History Books of 2022 "Rebel historian" Kelly Lytle Hernández reframes our understanding of U.S. history in this groundbreaking narrative of revolution in the borderlands. Bad Mexicans tells the dramatic story of the magonistas, the migrant rebels who sparked the 1910 Mexican Revolution from the United States. Led by a brilliant but ill-tempered radical named Ricardo Flores Magón, the magonistas were a motley band of journalists, miners, migrant workers, and more, who organized thousands of Mexican workers—and American dissidents—to their cause. Determined to oust Mexico’s dictator, Porfirio Díaz, who encouraged the plunder of his country by U.S. imperialists such as Guggenheim and Rockefeller, the rebels had to outrun and outsmart the swarm of U. S. authorities vested in protecting the Diaz regime. The U.S. Departments of War, State, Treasury, and Justice as well as police, sheriffs, and spies, hunted the magonistas across the country. Capturing Ricardo Flores Magón was one of the FBI’s first cases. But the magonistas persevered. They lived in hiding, wrote in secret code, and launched armed raids into Mexico until they ignited the world’s first social revolution of the twentieth century. Taking readers to the frontlines of the magonista uprising and the counterinsurgency campaign that failed to stop them, Kelly Lytle Hernández puts the magonista revolt at the heart of U.S. history. Long ignored by textbooks, the magonistas threatened to undo the rise of Anglo-American power, on both sides of the border, and inspired a revolution that gave birth to the Mexican-American population, making the magonistas’ story integral to modern American life.

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Pirate Hunter of the Caribbean - David Cordingly Cover Art

Pirate Hunter of the Caribbean

Pirate Hunter of the Caribbean The Adventurous Life of Captain Woodes Rogers by David Cordingly

From renowned pirate historian David Cordingly, author of Under the Black Flag and film consultant for the original Pirates of the Caribbean, comes the thrilling story of Captain Woodes Rogers, the avenging nemesis of the worst cutthroats ever to terrorize the high seas. Once a marauding privateer himself, Woodes Rogers went from laying siege to laying down the law. During Britain’s war with Spain, Rogers sailed for the crown in sorties against Spanish targets in the Pacific; battled scurvy, hurricanes, and mutinies; captured a treasure galleon; and even rescued the castaway who inspired Robinson Crusoe . Appointed governor of the Bahamas in 1717, the fearless Rogers defended the island colony of King George I against plundering pirates and an attempted Spanish invasion. His resolute example led to the downfall of such notorious pirates as Blackbeard, Calico Jack, and the female pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read. A vividly detailed and action-packed portrait of one of the early eighteenth century’s most colorful characters, Pirate Hunter of the Caribbean serves up history that’s as fascinating and gripping as any seafaring legend.

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Jungleland - Christopher S. Stewart Cover Art

Jungleland

Jungleland A Mysterious Lost City, a WWII Spy, and a True Story of Deadly Adventure by Christopher S. Stewart

For fans of The Lost City of Z, The River of Doubt, and Lost in Shangri-La—a real-life Indiana Jones story, set in the mysterious jungles of Honduras. "I began to daydream about the jungle...." On April 6, 1940, explorer and future World War II spy Theodore Morde (who would one day attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler), anxious about the perilous journey that lay ahead of him. Deep inside “the little Amazon,” the jungles of Honduras’s Mosquito Coast—one of the largest, wildest, and most impenetrable stretches of tropical land in the world—lies the fabled city of Ciudad Blanca: the White City. For centuries, it has lured explorers, including Spanish conquistador Herman Cortes. Some intrepid souls got lost within its dense canopy; some disappeared. Others never made it out alive. Then, in 1939, Theodore Morde claimed that he had located this El Dorado-like city. Yet before he revealed its location, Morde died under strange circumstances, giving credence to those who believe that the spirits of the Ciudad Blanca killed him. In Jungleland, Christopher S. Stewart seeks to retrace Morde's steps and answer the questions his death left hanging. Is this lost city real or only a tantalyzing myth? What secrets does the jungle hold? What continues to draw explorers into the unknown jungleland at such terrific risk? In this absorbing true-life thriller, journalist Christopher S. Stewart sets out to find answers—a white-knuckle adventure that combines Morde’s wild, enigmatic tale with Stewart’s own epic journey to find the truth about the White City.

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The Memory of Fire Trilogy - Eduardo Galeano Cover Art

The Memory of Fire Trilogy

The Memory of Fire Trilogy Genesis, Faces and Masks, and Century of the Wind by Eduardo Galeano

All three books in the American Book Award–winning Memory of Fire Trilogy available in a single volume for the first time. Eduardo Galeano's  Memory of Fire Trilogy  defies categorization—or perhaps creates its own. It is a passionate, razor-sharp, lyrical history of North and South America, from the birth of the continent's indigenous peoples through the end of the twentieth century. The three volumes form a haunting and dizzying whole that resurrects the lives of Indians, conquistadors, slaves, revolutionaries, poets, and more. The first book,  Genesis , pays homage to the many origin stories of the tribes of the Americas, and paints a verdant portrait of life in the New World through the age of the conquistadors. The second book,  Faces and Masks , spans the two centuries between the years 1700 and 1900, in which colonial powers plundered their newfound territories, ultimately giving way to a rising tide of dictators. And in the final installment,  Century of the Wind , Galeano brings his story into the twentieth century, in which a fractured continent enters the modern age as popular revolts blaze from North to South. This celebrated series is a landmark of contemporary Latin American writing, and a brilliant document of culture.

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Sweetness and Power - Sidney W. Mintz Cover Art

Sweetness and Power

Sweetness and Power The Place of Sugar in Modern History by Sidney W. Mintz

A fascinating persuasive history of how sugar has shaped the world, from European colonies to our modern diets In this eye-opening study, Sidney Mintz shows how Europeans and Americans transformed sugar from a rare foreign luxury to a commonplace necessity of modern life, and how it changed the history of capitalism and industry. He discusses the production and consumption of sugar, and reveals how closely interwoven are sugar's origins as a "slave" crop grown in Europe's tropical colonies with is use first as an extravagant luxury for the aristocracy, then as a staple of the diet of the new industrial proletariat. Finally, he considers how sugar has altered work patterns, eating habits, and our diet in modern times. "Like sugar, Mintz is persuasive, and his detailed history is a real treat." — San Francisco Chronicle

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The Real Odessa - Uki Goñi Cover Art

The Real Odessa

The Real Odessa How Perón Brought the Nazi War Criminals to Argentina by Uki Goñi

The groundbreaking expose of an international conspiracy to protect Nazi war criminals—now with new material and an introduction by Phillip Sands.   As Russian forces closed in on Berlin, and Hitler's premiership drew to a close, many Nazi officials fled Germany. In this startling, meticulously researched account, acclaimed journalist Uki Goni unravels the complex international network that led them to Argentina. Goni demonstrates how numerous war criminals—including Adolf Eichmann, Joseph Mengele, Erich Priebke, and many others—made their escape with the support of the Vatican and President Juan Peron, as well as significant assistance from Scandinavia, Switzerland, and Italy.   Both riveting and rigorous, this remarkable investigation sheds light on both a disquieting episode in Europe's history, and the ties between Argentinian Catholic Nationalism and Fascist movements in Europe.

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A Flower Traveled in My Blood - Haley Cohen Gilliland Cover Art

A Flower Traveled in My Blood

A Flower Traveled in My Blood The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children by Haley Cohen Gilliland

Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2025 • THE WASHINGTON POST ’S 5 BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF 2025 • THE ATLANTIC ’S 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2025 • THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY'S BEST BOOKS OF 2025 • TIME MAGAZINE’S BEST BOOKS OF 2025 • NPR’S BEST BOOKS OF 2025 “[An] astonishing story…Powerful…Harrowing…Absorbing and lucid…You would have to harden your heart to be unmoved by the Abuelas’ quest.” —Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times Book Review (front-cover review) “Inspiring…A triumphant saga of ordinary people doing extraordinary things in the face of pure malevolence.” —Hampton Sides • “Enthralling…Written with the nail-biting verve of a thriller.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) • “Extraordinary...A harrowing and timely reminder of what happens when democracy succumbs to despotism.” —Adam Higginbotham • “[A] cinematically detailed, deeply researched narrative.” — The Washington Post • “Piercing, emotional...Will resonate for generations.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) A remarkable new talent in narrative nonfiction delivers the epic true story of a group of courageous grandmothers who fought to find their grandchildren who were stolen. In the early hours of March 24, 1976, the streets of Buenos Aires rumble with tanks as soldiers seize the presidential palace and topple Argentina’s leader. The country is now under the control of a military junta, with army chief Jorge Rafael Videla at the helm. With quiet support from the United States and tacit approval from much of Argentina’s people, who are tired of constant bombings and gunfights, the junta swiftly launches the National Reorganization Process or El Proceso —a bland name masking their ruthless campaign to crush the political left and instill the country with “Western, Christian” values. The junta holds power until 1983 and decimates a generation. One of the military’s most diabolical acts is kidnapping hundreds of pregnant women. After giving birth in captivity, the women are “disappeared,” and their babies secretly given to other families—many of them headed by police or military officers. For mothers of pregnant daughters and daughters-in-law, the source of their grief is twofold—the disappearances of their children, and the theft of their grandchildren. A group of fierce grandmothers forms the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, dedicated to finding the stolen infants and seeking justice from a nation that betrayed them. At a time when speaking out could mean death, the Abuelas confront military officers and launch protests to reach international diplomats and journalists. They become detectives, adopting disguises to observe suspected grandchildren, and even work alongside a renowned American scientist to pioneer groundbreaking genetic tests. A Flower Traveled in My Blood is the rarest of nonfiction that reads like a novel and puts your heart in your throat. It is the product of years of extensive archival research and meticulous, original reporting. It marks the arrival of a blazing new talent in narrative journalism. In these pages, a regime tries to terrorize a country, but love prevails. The grandmothers’ stunning stories reveal new truths about memory, identity, and family.

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Conquest - Hugh Thomas Cover Art

Conquest

Conquest Cortes, Montezuma, and the Fall of Old Mexico by Hugh Thomas

Drawing on newly discovered sources and writing with brilliance, drama, and profound historical insight, Hugh Thomas presents an engrossing narrative of one of the most significant events of Western history. Ringing with the fury of two great empires locked in an epic battle, Conquest captures in extraordinary detail the Mexican and Spanish civilizations and offers unprecedented in-depth portraits of the legendary opponents, Montezuma and Cortés. Conquest is an essential work of history from one of our most gifted historians.

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The Life and Times of Mexico - Earl Shorris Cover Art

The Life and Times of Mexico

The Life and Times of Mexico by Earl Shorris

A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year. "A work of scope and profound insight into the divided soul of Mexico." —History Today The Life and Times of Mexico is a grand narrative driven by 3,000 years of history: the Indian world, the Spanish invasion, Independence, the 1910 Revolution, the tragic lives of workers in assembly plants along the border, and the experiences of millions of Mexicans who live in the United States. Mexico is seen here as if it were a person, but in the Aztec way; the mind, the heart, the winds of life; and on every page there are portraits and stories: artists, shamans, teachers, a young Maya political leader; the rich few and the many poor. Earl Shorris is ingenious at finding ways to tell this story: prostitutes in the Plaza Loreto launch the discussion of economics; we are taken inside two crucial elections as Mexico struggles toward democracy; we watch the creation of a popular "telenovela" and meet the country's greatest living intellectual. The result is a work of magnificent scope and profound insight into the divided soul of Mexico.

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Manana Forever? - Jorge G. Castañeda Cover Art

Manana Forever?

Manana Forever? by Jorge G. Castañeda

Why are Mexicans so successful in individual sports, but deficient in team play? Why do Mexicans dislike living in skyscrapers? Why do Mexicans love to see themselves as victims, but also love victims? And why, though the Mexican people traditionally avoid conflict, is there so much violence in a country where many leaders have died by assassination? In this shrewd and fascinating book, the renowned scholar and former foreign minister Jorge Castañeda sheds much light on the puzzling paradoxes of his native country. Here’s a nation of 110 million that has an ambivalent and complicated relationship with the United States yet is host to more American expatriates than any country in the world. Its people tend to resent foreigners yet have made the nation a hugely popular tourist destination. Mexican individualism and individual ties to the land reflect a desire to conserve the past and slow the route to uncertain modernity. Castañeda examines the future possibilities for Mexico as it becomes more diverse in its regional identities, socially more homogenous, its character and culture the instruments of change rather than sources of stagnation, its political system more open and democratic. Mañana Forever? is a compelling portrait of a nation at a crossroads.

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Farewell, Fred Voodoo - Amy Wilentz Cover Art

Farewell, Fred Voodoo

Farewell, Fred Voodoo A Letter from Haiti by Amy Wilentz

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography, this is a brilliant writer’s account of a long, painful, ecstatic—and unreciprocated—affair with a country that has long fascinated the world. A foreign correspondent on a simple story becomes, over time and in the pages of this book, a lover of Haiti, pursuing the heart of this beautiful and confounding land into its darkest corners and brightest clearings. Farewell, Fred Voodoo is a journey into the depths of the human soul as well as a vivid portrayal of the nation’s extraordinary people and their uncanny resilience. Haiti has found in Amy Wilentz an author of astonishing wit, sympathy, and eloquence.

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Coffeeland - Augustine Sedgewick Cover Art

Coffeeland

Coffeeland One Man's Dark Empire and the Making of Our Favorite Drug by Augustine Sedgewick

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice “Extremely wide-ranging and well researched . . . In a tradition of protest literature rooted more in William Blake than in Marx.” —Adam Gopnik,  The New Yorker   The epic story of how coffee connected and divided the modern world   Coffee is an indispensable part of daily life for billions of people around the world. But few coffee drinkers know this story. It centers on the volcanic highlands of El Salvador, where James Hill, born in the slums of Manchester, England, founded one of the world’s great coffee dynasties at the turn of the twentieth century. Adapting the innovations of the Industrial Revolution to plantation agriculture, Hill helped turn El Salvador into perhaps the most intensive monoculture in modern history—a place of extraordinary productivity, inequality, and violence. In the process, both El Salvador and the United States earned the nickname “Coffeeland,” but for starkly different reasons, and with consequences that reach into the present. Provoking a reconsideration of what it means to be connected to faraway people and places, Coffeeland tells the hidden and surprising story of one of the most valuable commodities in the history of global capitalism.

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Comandante - Rory Carroll Cover Art

Comandante

Comandante Hugo Chávez's Venezuela by Rory Carroll

"An impressively well-researched and readable portrait . . .  a useful reminder of what el Comandante did and didn't achieve, how he got away with it, and the danger of statesmen-as-showmen whose promises are too good to be true." — The New York Times Book Review "A deeply informative, sprightly chronicle of Venezuela's dizzying journey." — The Washington Post In Comandante , acclaimed journalist Rory Carroll tells the inside story of Hugo Chávez’s life, investigates his time as Venezuela’s president, and assesses his legacy. Carroll examines the almost religious devotion of millions of Venezuelans who regarded Chávez as a savior, as well as the loathing of those who brand him a dictator. Based on interviews with ministers, aides, courtiers, and citizens, this intimate piece of reportage chronicles a unique experiment in power that veered from enlightenment to tyranny, from comedy to farce. In beautiful prose that blends the lyricism and strangeness of magical realism with the brutal, ugly truth of authoritarianism, Comandante offers a cautionary tale for our times.

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Mexico - Paul Gillingham Cover Art

Mexico

Mexico A 500-Year History by Paul Gillingham

A Washington Post Best Nonfiction Book of 2025 From acclaimed and prize-winning historian Paul Gillingham, a rich and vibrant history of one of the world’s most diverse, politically ground-breaking, and influential of countries At the beginning of his masterful work of scholarship and narration, Paul Gillingham writes, from its outset “Mexico was more profoundly, globally hybrid than anywhere else in the prior history of the world.” Over the ensuing five centuries, Mexicans have prefigured and shaped the course of human lives across the globe. Gillingham begins in 1511 with the dramatic shipwreck of two Spanish sailors in the far south of Mexico. Ten years later Hernán Cortés led an army of European adventurers and indigenous rebels to seize the legendary island city of Tenochtitlán, the center of Montezuma’s empire, the largest in the Americas. The capture of the future Mexico City was, more than an extraordinary military event, the collision of two long-separated worlds, radically different in everything from biota to urban planning. Spaniards discovered tomatoes, chocolate, and a city larger and more sophisticated than anything they had ever seen. Mexicans discovered horses, wheels, and lethal germs, sparking a cataclysmic century of disease that wiped out a majority of the pre-existing population and led to a unique recombination of European and indigenous cultures. The industrial mining of Mexico’s silver transformed the wealth and trade of the world. Mexico’s independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821 led to a calamitous mid-century war with the United States and one of the first great social revolutions that brought peace for Mexicans throughout many of the global horrors of the 20th century, before the country itself collapsed into the violence of the cartels and a refugee crisis in the 2000s. The history of Mexico has been, Gillingham shows, one of suffering empire but also of overcoming. Through it all the country set new standards for inclusivity, for progressive social policies, for artistic expression, for adroitly balancing dictatorship and democracy. While racial divides endured, so too did indigenous peoples, who enjoyed rights unthinkable in the United States. Mexico was among the first countries to abolish slavery in 1829, and Mexicans elected North America’s first Black president, Vicente Guerrero, its only indigenous president, Benito Juárez, and its only woman president, Claudia Sheinbaum. As elegantly written as it is powerful in scope, rich in character and anecdote, Mexico uses the latest research to dazzling effect, showing how often Mexico has been a dynamic and vital shaper of world affairs.

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Las venas abiertas de América Latina - Eduardo Galeano Cover Art

Las venas abiertas de América Latina

Las venas abiertas de América Latina by Eduardo Galeano

Historia del saqueo de América Latina que muestra cómo funcionan los mecanismos actuales del despojo: los tecnócratas en jet, herederos de los conquistadores en carabela; Hernán Cortés y los infantes de marina; los corregidores del reino y las misiones del Fondo Monetario Internacional; los dividendos del tráfico de esclavos y las ganancias de la General Motors. El tiempo presente ha sido presentido y engendrado por las contradicciones del pasado.

48

Salvador - Joan Didion Cover Art

Salvador

Salvador by Joan Didion

"Terror is the given of the place." The place is El Salvador in 1982, at the ghastly height of its civil war. Didion "brings the country to life" ( The New York Times ), delivering an anatomy of a particular brand of political terror—its mechanisms, rationales, and intimate relation to United States foreign policy. As ash travels from battlefields to body dumps, Didion interviews a puppet president, and considers the distinctly Salvadoran grammar of the verb "to disappear." Here, the bestselling, award-winning author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Let Me Tell You What I Mean gives us a book that is germane to any country in which bloodshed has become a standard tool of politics.

49

The Dope - Benjamin T. Smith Cover Art

The Dope

The Dope The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade by Benjamin T. Smith

A myth-busting, 100-year history of the Mexican drug trade that reveals how an industry founded by farmers and village healers became dominated by cartels and kingpins. The Mexican drug trade has inspired prejudiced narratives of a war between north and south, white and brown; between noble cops and vicious kingpins, corrupt politicians and powerful cartels. In this first comprehensive history of the trade, historian Benjamin T. Smith tells the real story of how and why this one-peaceful industry turned violent. He uncovers its origins and explains how this illicit business essentially built modern Mexico, affecting everything from agriculture to medicine to economics—and the country’s all-important relationship with the United States. Drawing on unprecedented archival research; leaked DEA, Mexican law enforcement, and cartel documents; and dozens of harrowing interviews, Smith tells a thrilling story brimming with vivid characters—from Ignacia “La Nacha” Jasso, “queen pin” of Ciudad Juárez, to Dr. Leopoldo Salazar Viniegra, the crusading physician who argued that marijuana was harmless and tried to decriminalize morphine, to Harry Anslinger, the Machiavellian founder of the American Federal Bureau of Narcotics, who drummed up racist drug panics to increase his budget. Smith also profiles everyday agricultural workers, whose stories reveal both the economic benefits and the human cost of the trade. The Dope contains many surprising conclusions about drug use and the failure of drug enforcement, all backed by new research and data. Smith explains the complicated dynamics that drive the current drug war violence, probes the U.S.-backed policies that have inflamed the carnage, and explores corruption on both sides of the border. A dark morality tale about the American hunger for intoxication and the necessities of human survival, The Dope is essential for understanding the violence in the drug war and how decades-old myths shape Mexico in the American imagination today.

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Warlords of Ancient Mexico - Peter G. Tsouras Cover Art

Warlords of Ancient Mexico

Warlords of Ancient Mexico How the Mayans and Aztecs Ruled for More Than a Thousand Years by Peter G. Tsouras

Learn the unbelievable true history of the great warrior tribes of Mexico. More than thirteen centuries of incredible spellbinding history are detailed in this intriguing study of the rulers and warriors of Mexico. Dozens of these charismatic leaders of nations and armies are brought to life by the deep research and entertaining storytelling of Peter Tsouras. Tsouras introduces the reader to the colossal personalities of the period: Smoking Frog, the Mexican Machiavelli, the Poet Warlord, the Lion of Anahuac, and others . . . all of them warlords who shaped one of the most significant regions in world history, men who influenced the civilization of half a continent. The warlords of Mexico, for all their fascinating lives and momentous acts, have been largely ignored by writers and historians, but here that disappointing record is put right by a range of detailed biographies that entertain as they inform. Students of the area, historians working in American history, and long-term visitors and tourists to the region will gain a much clearer understanding of the background history of these territories and the men who formed and reformed them. Lavishly illustrated with dozens of photographs and color paintings, Warlords of Ancient Mexico is essential reading for anyone interested in this tumultuous, endlessly captivating period of Central American history. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

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