The Latin language has been the one constant in the cultural history of the West for more than two millennia. It has defined the way in which we express our thoughts, our faith, and our knowledge of how the world functions, its use echoing on in the law codes of half the world, in the terminologies of modern science, and, until forty years ago, in the liturgy of the Catholic Church. In his erudite and entertaining “biography,” Nicholas Ostler shows how and why Latin survived and thrived even as its creators and other languages failed.
Kristeva is one of the leading voices in contemporary French criticism, on a par with such names as Genette, Foucault, Greimas and others. . . . [Powers of Horror] is an excellent introduction to an aspect of contemporary French literature which has been allowed to become somewhat neglected in the current emphasis on paraphilosophical modes of discourse. -- Paul de Man
This full-length history of Scotland spans 18 centuries, from the Picts to the 1980s. The book focuses on social and cultural history, including life in the towns, the changing role of the nobility and the shifting images of Scottish identity.
Since his death in 1972, there has been an increasing fascination with Hoover and the immense power he wielded as director of the FBI. Although there have been two recent major biographies--Athan G. Theoharis's The Boss ( LJ 6/1/88) and Richard G. Powers's Secrecy and Power ( LJ 2/1/87)--this massive new study promises to be the most extensive and controversial yet. Gentry, who coauthored Helter Skelter ( LJ 11/15/74), has based his account of Hoover on more than 300 interviews and on access to previously classified FBI documents.
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
The explosive first-hand account of America’s secret history in Afghanistan With the publication of Ghost Wars, Steve Coll became not only a Pulitzer Prize winner, but also the expert on the rise of the Taliban, the emergence of Bin Laden, and the secret efforts by CIA officers and their agents to capture or kill Bin Laden in Afghanistan after 1998.
