Hindu tantric text on Tripurasundarī, Hindu deity.

The esoteric Hindu traditions of Tantrism have profoundly influenced the development of Indian thought and civilization. Emerging from elements of yoga and wisdom traditions, shamanism, alchemy, eroticism, and folklore, Tantrism began to affect brahmanical Hinduism in the ninth century. Nevertheless, Tantrism and its key historical figures have been ignored by scholars. This accessible work introduces the concepts and practices of Hindu Sakta Tantrism to all those interested in Hinduism and the comparative study of religion.

'More action and hair-raising stunts than you'll find in four Bond movies' EVENING TELEGRAPH 'Thrilling, action-packed adventure' GUARDIAN DISCOVER THIS WILDLY-ENTERTAINING, GLOBE-TROTTING ADVENTURE FROM INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER MATTHEW REILLY * * * * * What if the greatest lost cities of legend are still out there... Jack West has just won the Great Games and thrown the four legendary kingdoms into turmoil. Now these dark forces are coming after him... in ruthless fashion. With the end of all things rapidly approaching, Jack and his crew must find the Three Secret Cities - three incredible lost cities of legend. It's an impossible task by any reckoning, but Jack must do it while being hunted... * * * * * PRAISE FOR THE JACK WEST THRILLERS 'Thrilling, action-packed adventure from cover to cover' Guardian 'Nobody writes action like Matthew Reilly' Vince Flynn 'Get ready for a wild ride' Daily Telegraph 'Exciting and entertaining' Chicago Sun-Times * * * * * READERS LOVE THE JACK WEST THRILLERS 'Indiana Jones in a book . . . Immensely entertaining' 'A super duper kick ass soldier' 'A first class all-action historical thriller' 'Heart-pounding stuff' 'Enjoy the rollercoaster ride'

The “king of hardcore action” (Brad Thor, New York Times bestselling author) and New York Times and #1 international bestselling author weaves a breathless thriller starring Jack West, Jr. that’s “a clever mix of history, mythology, and geography” (Associated Press). A shadow world behind the real world… When Jack West, Jr. won the Great Games, he threw the four legendary kingdoms into turmoil. A world with its own history, rules and prisons… Now these dark forces are coming after Jack...in ruthless fashion. That is reaching into our world—explosively… With the end of all things rapidly approaching, Jack must find the Three Secret Cities, three incredible lost cities of legend. It’s an impossible task by any reckoning, but Jack must do it while he is being hunted...by the greatest hunters in history. With Matthew Reilly’s signature “wave after wave of nonstop action” (Booklist), The Three Secret Cities is an electrifying rollercoaster ride of a thriller.

The New York Times Bestseller A New York Times Notable Book of 2022 Named one of Vanity Fair's “Best Books of 2022” “Not since Robert Caro’s Years of Lyndon Johnson have I been so riveted by a work of history. Secret City is not gay history. It is American history.” —George Stephanopoulos Washington, D.C., has always been a city of secrets. Few have been more dramatic than the ones revealed in James Kirchick’s Secret City. For decades, the specter of homosexuality haunted Washington. The mere suggestion that a person might be gay destroyed reputations, ended careers, and ruined lives. At the height of the Cold War, fear of homosexuality became intertwined with the growing threat of international communism, leading to a purge of gay men and lesbians from the federal government. In the fevered atmosphere of political Washington, the secret “too loathsome to mention” held enormous, terrifying power. Utilizing thousands of pages of declassified documents, interviews with over one hundred people, and material unearthed from presidential libraries and archives around the country, Secret City is a chronicle of American politics like no other. Beginning with the tragic story of Sumner Welles, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s brilliant diplomatic advisor and the man at the center of “the greatest national scandal since the existence of the United States,” James Kirchick illuminates how homosexuality shaped each successive presidential administration through the end of the twentieth century. Cultural and political anxiety over gay people sparked a decades-long witch hunt, impacting everything from the rivalry between the CIA and the FBI to the ascent of Joseph McCarthy, the struggle for Black civil rights, and the rise of the conservative movement. Among other revelations, Kirchick tells of the World War II–era gay spymaster who pioneered seduction as a tool of American espionage, the devoted aide whom Lyndon Johnson treated as a son yet abandoned once his homosexuality was discovered, and how allegations of a “homosexual ring” controlling Ronald Reagan nearly derailed his 1980 election victory. Magisterial in scope and intimate in detail, Secret City will forever transform our understanding of American history.

The pulse of great cities may be most palpable above ground, but it is below the busy streets where we can observe their rich archaeological history and the infrastructure that keeps them running. In Beneath the Metropolis journalist Alex Marshall investigates how geological features, archaeological remnants of past civilizations, and layered networks transporting water, electricity, and people, have shaped these cities through centuries of political turbulence and advancements in engineering — and how they are determining the course of the cities' future. From the first-century catacombs of Rome, the New York subway system, and the swamps and ancient quays beneath London, to San Francisco's fault lines, the depleted aquifer below Mexico City, and Mao Tse-tung's extensive network of secret tunnels under Beijing, these subterranean environments offer a unique cross-section of a city's history and future. Stunningly illustrated with colorful photographs, drawings, and maps, Beneath the Metropolis reveals the hidden worlds beneath our feet, and charts the cities' development through centuries of forgotten history, political change, and technological innovation.

In the spirit of Joseph Mitchell and E. L. Doctorow, a haunting and genre-defying portrait gallery of once-eminent, now half-forgotten New Yorkers buried in the city's largest cemetery Woodlawn Cemetery is a massive necropolis, four hundred immaculately and privately maintained acres in the north Bronx that serve as the final resting place for three hundred thousand New Yorkers. It is a place of startling serenity and architectural distinction as well as cultural and historical significance that nonetheless remains unknown to the majority of people who live in the city. Which is surprising when one learns that its (very) long-term inhabitants include Herman Melville, Duke Ellington, Robert Moses, Fiorello La Guardia, Miles Davis, and dozens of Gilded Age grandeesincluding Goulds and Astorswho were determined to spend eternity with opulence to match their residences while alive. Writer Fred Goodman stumbled upon Woodlawn one day when he wandered off his bicycling path.The Secret Cityis the product of his frankly obsessive researches into the lives of many of the once famed, now forgotten men and women buried there. Featuring nine dramatic episodes, chronologically arranged, each story presents an exceptional individual caught up in a defining or historical moment of New York's social, political, commercial, or artistic life. Readers meet phrenologist and publisher Orson Fowler, ASPCA founder Henry Bergh, Gilded Age railroad magnate Austin Corbin, political satirist Finley Peter Dunne, "Boy Mayor" John Purroy Mitchel, attorney Francis Garvan, sculptor Attilio Piccirilli, Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen, leftist East Harlem Congressman Vito Marcantonio, and pioneering aviatrix Ruth Nichols. Framing and tying together these novelistic tales is the first-person narrative of the author's discovery of Woodlawn and his research.The Secret Cityis, then, an act of resurrectiona way of putting flesh on the anonymous dead, and humanizing and demystifying a city whose fabulous history is, too often, interred with its inhabitants.

The city of Belfast tends to be discussed in terms of its distinctiveness from the rest of Ireland, an industrial city in an agricultural country. However, when compared with another 'British' industrial port such as Bristol it is the similarities rather than the differences that are surprising. When these cities are compared with Dublin, the contrasts become even more painfully evident. This book seeks to explore these contrasting urban centres at the start of the twentieth century.

Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was created by the U.S. government during World War II to aid in the construction of the first atomic bomb. Drawing on oral history and previously classified material, this book portrays the patterns of daily life in this unique setting.

Monstrous beasts, lost worlds, vanished civilizations, Amazon warriors, even Atlantis and Noahs ark figure in this wondrous and rare book. Hard to find in print before now, this obscure 1952 work is an artifact itself, of the postwar fascination with all things mysterious, from flying saucers to ancient astronauts to the third eye. In this wildly entertainingand more than a little bit preposterousdocument, Wilkins takes us from mountain jungles to unexplored swamps on a search for the hidden secrets of old South America. Seekers after the arcane and fans of the paranormal will delight in this odd and extraordinary volume. British journalist and historian HAROLD T. WILKINS (18911960) is also the author of Mysteries of Ancient South America (1945) and Mysteries of Time and Space (1958).