A tale that has been more or less forgotten for centuries is brought back to life through archaelogical research and exploration in the forests of Madagascar.

The American West is mistakenly known as a region with few African Americans and virtually no black history. This work challenges that view in a chronicle that begins in 1528 and carries through to the present-day black success in politics and the surging interest in multiculturalism.

More often than not, it was assumed that these myths surrounding him were reliable portrayals of the first black man to cross the United States.".

By extending their voyages to all oceans from the 1760s onward, whaling vessels from North America and Europe spanned a novel net of hunting grounds, maritime routes, supply posts, and transport chains across the globe. For obtaining provisions, cutting firewood, recruiting additional men, and transshipping whale products, these highly mobile hunters regularly frequented coastal places and islands along their routes, which were largely determined by the migratory movements of their prey. American-style pelagic whaling thus constituted a significant, though often overlooked factor in connecting people and places between distant world regions during the long nineteenth century. Focusing on Africa, this book investigates side-effects resulting from stopovers by whalers for littoral societies on the economic, social, political, and cultural level. For this purpose it draws on eight local case studies, four from Africa’s west coast and four from its east coast. In the overall picture, the book shows a broad range of effects and side-effects of different forms and strengths, which it figures as a "grey undercurrent" of global history.

A new, thoroughly updated 12th edition of Bradt's Madagascar, the leading and most comprehensive guide to this unique island nation, written by Hilary Bradt, who first visited in 1976 and has returned roughly 35 times, and Daniel Austin, who has visited 12 times and continues to travel there annually. Bradt's Madagascar is by far the most thorough guide to the country in English and is written and updated by established experts whose unparalleled knowledge of Madagascar combines with contributions from over 50 experts in a book which has been the most authoritative guide to the country for three decades. It covers national parks and protected areas and includes itineraries to suit all interests and budgets, plus details of around 1,000 hotels and restaurants. Madagascar is like nowhere else on earth. It is fascinating not only zoologically and botanically, but culturally, linguistically, historically and geologically. This vast island is the fourth largest in the world and also the oldest. This is part of the reason why it has evolved into an incredible hotspot for biodiversity, with a truly unique flora and fauna that is more than 80% endemic to the island, and with new species being described virtually on a daily basis. Madagascar is also the only place where you can see wild lemurs. Almost a quarter of the world's 450-or-so primates exist only here. With Bradt's Madagascar you can visit tropical rainforest and seek out its incredible flora and fauna; explore the otherworldly eroded limestone spires, most famously at Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park - Madagascar's most striking landscape; discover the beach-fringed islands around Nosy Be with their fabulous scuba diving, snorkelling, kayaking, whale-watching and fishing opportunities; and make the most of a host of adventuring and sporting possibilities, including surfing, windsurfing, kitesurfing, rock climbing, tree climbing, caving, river trips, mountain biking, distance running, quad biking, trekking and hiking. Also covered are the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ambohimanga; the renowned Avenue des Baobabs, one of the country's most photographed scenes, and information on the best birdwatching spots: Madagascar has almost 300 avian species, with a high proportion of endemics, including five whole endemic families.

Our knowledge about Stonehenge has changed dramatically as a result of the Stonehenge Riverside Project (2003-2009), led by Mike Parker Pearson, and included not only Stonehenge itself but also the nearby great henge enclosure of Durrington Walls. This book is about the people who built Stonehenge and its relationship to the surrounding landscape. The book explores the theory that the people of Durrington Walls built both Stonehenge and Durrington Walls, and that the choice of stone for constructing Stonehenge has a significance so far undiscovered, namely, that stone was used for monuments to the dead. Through years of thorough and extensive work at the site, Parker Pearson and his team unearthed evidence of the Neolithic inhabitants and builders which connected the settlement at Durrington Walls with the henge, and contextualised Stonehenge within the larger site complex, linked by the River Avon, as well as in terms of its relationship with the rest of the British Isles. Parker Pearson's book changes the way that we think about Stonehenge; correcting previously erroneous chronology and dating; filling in gaps in our knowledge about its people and how they lived; identifying a previously unknown type of Neolithic building; discovering Bluestonehenge, a circle of 25 blue stones from western Wales; and confirming what started as a hypothesis - that Stonehenge was a place of the dead - through more than 64 cremation burials unearthed there, which span the monument's use during the third millennium BC. In lively and engaging prose, Parker Pearson brings to life the imposing ancient monument that continues to hold a fascination for everyone.

A brilliant and surprising account of the coming of the American Civil War, showing the crucial role of slaves who escaped to Mexico. The Underground Railroad to the North promised salvation to many American slaves before the Civil War. But thousands of people in the south-central United States escaped slavery not by heading north but by crossing the southern border into Mexico, where slavery was abolished in 1837. In South to Freedom, historianAlice L. Baumgartner tells the story of why Mexico abolished slavery and how its increasingly radical antislavery policies fueled the sectional crisis in the United States. Southerners hoped that annexing Texas and invading Mexico in the 1840s would stop runaways and secure slavery's future. Instead, the seizure of Alta California and Nuevo México upset the delicate political balance between free and slave states. This is a revelatory and essential new perspective on antebellum America and the causes of the Civil War.

“Through the Eyes of a Slave” contains a carefully-selected collection of famous, influential and moving American slave narratives from a variety of authors including Solomon Northup's “Twelve Years a Slave”, which was adapted into the 2013 blockbuster film of the same name. These compelling, inspirational, and often harrowing real-life stories offer a unique insight into the travails of slave life in nineteenth-century America, and are highly recommended for those with an interest in this dark chapter of American history. Contents include: “Thirty Years a Slave, by Louis Hughes”, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, by Frederick Douglass”, “Twelve Years a Slave, by Solomon Northup”, “Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom, by William Craft and Ellen Craft”, and “Twenty-Two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman, by Austin Steward”. Read & Co. History is proudly publishing this brand new collection of classic memoirs now for the enjoyment of a new generation of readers.