From 1792 to 1795, George Vancouver sailed the Pacific as the captain of his own expedition — and as an agent of imperial ambition. To map a place is to control it, and Britain had its eyes on America's Pacific coast. And map it Vancouver did. His voyage was one of history’s greatest feats of maritime daring, discovery, and diplomacy, and his marine survey of Hawaii and the Pacific coast was at its time the most comprehensive ever undertaken. But just two years after returning to Britain, the 40-year-old Vancouver, hounded by critics, shamed by public humiliation at the fists of an aristocratic sailor he had flogged, and blacklisted because of a perceived failure to follow the Admiralty’s directives, died in poverty, nearly forgotten. In this riveting and perceptive biography, historian Stephen Bown delves into the events that destroyed Vancouver’s reputation and restores his position as one of the greatest explorers of the Age of Discovery.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'Madness, though ostensibly the story of Crownsville, is really about the continued lack of understanding, treatment and care of the mental health of a people, Black people, who need it most' New York Times In the tradition of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a page-turning 93-year history of Crownsville Hospital, one of the United States' last segregated asylums. On a cold day in March of 1911, officials marched twelve Black men into the heart of a forest in Maryland. Under the supervision of a doctor, the men were forced to clear the land, pour cement, lay bricks and harvest tobacco. When construction finished, they became the first twelve patients of the state's Hospital for the Negro Insane. In Madness, Peabody and Emmy award-winning journalist Antonia Hylton tells the 93-year-old history of Crownsville Hospital. She blends the intimate tales of patients and employees whose lives were shaped by Crownsville with a decade-worth of investigative research and archival documents. As Crownsville Hospital grew from an antebellum-style work camp to a tiny city sitting on 1,500 acres, it became a microcosm of America's evolving battles over slavery, racial integration and civil rights. During its peak years, the hospital's wards were overflowing with almost 2,700 patients. By the end of the 20th-century, the asylum faded from view as prisons and jails became America's new focus.

Alex Hawke is sailing into trouble when an around-the-world journey becomes a fight against terror in the latest exciting adventure from New York Times bestselling novelist Ted Bell. After saving the kidnapped heir to the British throne, gentleman spy and MI6 legend Alex Hawke is due for some downtime. He’s got a new custom built sailing yacht and a goal: to get closer to his son Alexi during an epic cruise across the seven seas. But fate and the chief of MI6, Lord David Trulove, have other plans. There’s an unholy alliance of nations who are plotting to attack Western democracies. The wily intelligence leader plans to use Hawke to drive a knife into the heart of this conspiracy. From an island base off Cuba to a secret jungle lair deep in the Amazon, on the land and the seas, the master spy and his crew of incorrigibles are in for the fight of their lives—the fight for freedom.

A modern-day adventurer describes how he constructed a raft with the help of an indigenous people and embarked on a difficult and dangerous voyage around the Pacific in an effort to uncover the secrets of an ancient seafaring culture.

Cultural Constructions of Madness in the Eighteenth Century deals with the (mis)representation of insanity through a substantial range of literary forms and figures from across the eighteenth century and beyond. Chapters cover the representation, distortion, sentimentalization and elevation of insanity, and such associated issues as gender, personal identity, and performance, in some of the best, as well as some of the least, known writers of the period. A selection of visual material, including works by Hogarth, Rowlandson, and Gillray, is also discussed. While primarily adopting a literary focus, the work is informed throughout by an alertness to significant issues of medical and psychiatric history.

Over 2 lbs, with 614 pages of text, tables, and graphs! Do you know who "Blackbeard the Pirate" was? Probably not! Born into a substantial family in Bristol, the eldest son of Capt. Edward and Elizabeth Thache sailed for Jamaica with his family sometime before 1695. Capt. Edward Thache of St. Jago de la Vega or "Spanish Town" died there at age 47 while his son, Edward "Blackbeard" Thache Jr. joined the Royal Navy and fought in Queen Anne's War aboard HMS Windsor. Thache resembled more a Robber Baron of the early 20th century than a poor downtrodden member of Benjamin Hornigold's "Flying Gang" in the Bahamas - or even his "pupil." Capt. Charles Johnson's "A General History of the Pyrates" is a flawed historical work and much of what we have previously known about Blackbeard is simply not true. This book attempts to rediscover exactly who Blackbeard really was... and how he related to his maritime American "Pirate Nation!" Quite a few surprises are in store! Website: http: //baylusbrooks.com

This study presents Moby-Dick as a novel with three distinct but interconnecting stories: Ishmael’s, which he shares ten years after it has taken place; Ahab’s, which is Ishmael's account of the memorable captain of a whaling ship; and a third which centres on whales and whaling, which has not received significant critical attention. While each of these perspectives compete for prominence in the narrative, Ahab and Ishmael's stories have often distracted from the vital significance of the whaling narrative as what outlasts Ahab’s obsessive mission. Catalano rights this wrong by coming to a strikingly original and thought-provoking conclusion which becomes the heart of the book's argument: “the unity of Melville’s book comes, first, from the way the numerous literary, philosophical, and religious reflections are rooted in those magnificent beings, whales and in the men and ships that pursue them, and, second, in the way these reflections illuminate our own lives.”

From their first pairing in Hamlet (1948) to House of the Long Shadows (1983), British film stars Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing forged perhaps the most successful collaboration in horror film history. In its revised and expanded second edition, this volume examines their 22 movie team-ups, with critical commentary, complete cast and credits, production information, details on cinematography and make-up, exhibition history and box-office figures. A wealth of background about Hammer, Amicus and other production companies is provided, along with more than 100 illustrations. Lee and Cushing describe particulars of their partnership in original interviews. Exclusive interviews with Robert Bloch, Hazel Court and nearly fifty other actors, directors and others who worked on the Lee-Cushing films are included.