A year-round escape for one million annual tourists, Catalina Island is gaining popularity as a world-class eco-destination. Eighty-eight percent of the island is under the watch of the Catalina Island Conservancy, which preserves, manages and restores the island's unique wild lands. Bison, foxes and bald eagles are its best-known inhabitants, but Catalina is home to more than sixty other animal and plant species that exist nowhere else on earth. And they are all within the boundaries of one of the world's most populous regions: Los Angeles County. Biologists Frank Hein and Carlos de la Rosa present a highly enjoyable tour through the fascinating origins, mysterious quirks and ecological victories of one of the West Coast's most remarkable places.

The magnificent series of biblical commentaries known as Black's New Testament Commentaries (BNTC) under the General Editorship of Professor Morna Hooker has had a gap for far too long - it has lacked an up to date commentary on the Fourth Gospel.
Professor Andrew Lincoln now fills this gap with his excellent new commentary. The key questions for scholars are gone into thoroughly- questions of historicity, the use of historical traditions and sources, relationship to the Synoptics, authorship, setting, first readers and Professor Lincoln makes his own position on these issues abundantly clear.
The Fourth Gospel raises a number of problems generally known as The Johannine Question. According to tradition the Gospel was written by St John the Apostle. The authenticity of the tradition is examined in the introduction but the textual issues are examined within the commentary itself. For example one problem is that Chapters 15 and 16 seem in early versions to have preceded chapter 14. Chapter 21 must have been a later addition. The purpose of the Gospel as stated in Chapter 20 v 31 is to strenghten the reader's faith in Jesus as the Christ and the Son of God. But even the celebrated prologue has given rise to much speculation, whereas most commentators believe it is the key to the Gospel as a whole.
These issues are meat and drink to scholars but in Professor Lincoln's expert hands they are extremely interesting and highly pertinent to our contemporary understanding of the Gospel.

The once-thriving houseboat communities along Arkansas' White River are long gone, and few remember the sensational murder story that set local darling Helen Spence on a tragic path. In 1931, Spence shocked Arkansas when she avenged her father's murder in a DeWitt courtroom. The state soon discovered that no prison could hold her. For the first time, prison records are unveiled to provide an essential portrait. Join author Denise Parkinson for an intimate look at a Depression-era tragedy. The legend of Helen Spence refuses to be forgotten--despite her unmarked grave.

The history of North Carolina's Outer Banks is as ancient and mesmerizing as its beaches. Much has been documented, but many stories were lost--until now. Join local author and historian Sarah Downing as she reveals a past of the Outer Banks eroded by time and tides. Revel in the nostalgic days of the Carolina Beach Pavilion, stand in the shadows of windmills that once lined the coast and learn how native islanders honor those aviation giants, the Wright brothers. Downing's vignettes adventure through windswept dunes, dive deep in search of the lost ironclad the "Monitor" and lament the decline of the diamondback terrapin. Break out the beach chair and let your mind soak in the salty bygone days of these famed coastal extremities.

In vergeelde foto’s van drie dekades gelede staan oopgesigseuns vol bravade voor Ratel-gevegsvoertuie. Hierdie dienspligtiges van 61 Gemeganiseerde Bataljongroep staan aan die begin van hul reis diep in Angola in om vir volk en vaderland te gaan veg.

In ’n bloedige geveg op Valentynsdag 1988 en in die doodsakker by Tumpo sou hul jeugdige onskuld egter sneuwel. In die hitte van die gevegte kom die besef: Nou gaan dit nie oor ideologie nie, maar om oorlewing.

Ná die oorlog gaan die lewe voort, maar die vrae en geestelike letsels wyk nie. In 2018 keer ’n groep van dié ouddienspligtiges terug na Cuito Cuanavale op soek na afsluiting - en om die wrak te vind van die Ratel waarin ’n makker op die laaste dag van die oorlog gesterf het.

Die Brug vertel van hul reis van jong man na veteraan en gee ook ’n stem aan die vroue in hul lewe. Dit is ’n verhaal van ontnugtering, maar ook van trotse kameraderie en genesing.

In 1895, emissaries from the New York Yacht Club traveled to Deer Isle, Maine, to recruit the nation's best sailors, an "All American" crew. This remote island in Penobscot Bay sent nearly thirty of its fishing men to sail "Defender," and under skipper Hank Haff, they beat their opponents in a difficult and controversial series. To the delight of the American public, the charismatic Sir Thomas Lipton sent a surprise challenge in 1899. The New York Yacht Club knew where to turn and again recruited Deer Isle's fisherman sailors. Undefeated in two defense campaigns, they are still considered one of the best American sail-racing teams ever assembled. Read their fascinating story and relive their adventure.

Salem, Massachusetts, is the quintessential New England town, with its cobbled streets and strong ties to the sea. With the notoriety of the Salem witch trials, the city's reputation has been irrevocably linked to the occult. However, few know the history behind the religion of Spiritualism and the social movement that took root in this romanticized land. At the turn of the century, seers, mediums and magnetic healers all hoped to connect to the spiritual world. The popularity of Spiritualism and renewed interest in the occult blossomed out of an attempt to find an intellectual and emotional balance between science and religion. Learn of early converts, the role of the venerable Essex Institute and the psychic legacy of "Moll" Pitcher. Historian Maggi Smith-Dalton delves into Salem's exotic history, unraveling the beginnings of Spiritualism and the rise of the Witch City.

While all but gone today, Jamestown's furniture industry was once the second-largest producer of furniture in the United States. Manufacturing boomed from 1816, when William Breed and Royal Keyes opened their shops, to the 1920s, when Jamestown was still one of the top wood furniture producers in the country. In the nineteenth century, the thriving railroad industry allowed Jamestown's quality creations to be distributed nationwide. After the Civil War, an influx of Swedish immigrants brought their craftsmanship and skills to Jamestown, forming Morgan Manufacturing, Empire Furniture Company and many others. Then, their pieces were valued for quality and durability; today, they're coveted by collectors as beautiful antiques. Local expert Clarence Carlson uncovers the fascinating story of Jamestown furniture.

Many believe that support for the abolition of slavery was universally accepted in Vermont, but it was actually a fiercely divisive issue that rocked the Green Mountain State. In the midst of turbulence and violence, though, some brave Vermonters helped fight for the freedom of their enslaved Southern brethren. Thaddeus Stevens--one of abolition's most outspoken advocates--was a Vermont native. Delia Webster, the first woman arrested for aiding a fugitive slave, was also a Vermonter. The Rokeby house in Ferrisburgh was a busy Underground Railroad station for decades. Peacham's Oliver Johnson worked closely with William Lloyd Garrison during the abolition movement. Discover the stories of these and others in Vermont who risked their own lives to help more than four thousand slaves to freedom.

Located on the banks of the Chattahoochee, Columbus boasts a historic past that runs as deep as the river itself. But peer closely into the murkier parts of Columbus's history, and frightening stories begin to emerge. Join author and ghost hunter Faith Serafin for a chilling look into Columbus's haunted past. There's the regal Springer Opera House, where ghosts creep in the shadows of elaborate balconies. Visit the historic home of Columbus native and blues legend Ma Rainey, where some say the songstress can still be seen playing her original piano. Then there's the Phantom of Eubanks Field, whose ghastly apparition tries to frighten soldiers at Fort Benning. These terrifying tales, and more, await in this collection of haunting stories.

This is the first critical edition of the Anglo-Saxon archive of the Benedictine monastery at Peterborough, established by Bishop AEthelwold around AD 970 on the site of an earlier house known as Medeshamstede. The archive comprises 31 documents ranging in date from the 7th to the 11th centuries.
Alongside genuine royal diplomas, leases and an Old English will, are a series of spectacular forgeries that were created after the Norman Conquest as the monastic community strove to enhance its status and protect its endowment. A collection of hugely important memoranda, "the Medeshamstede memoranda," preserve intriguing details of transactions that took place in the later 7th century, and a series of brief records illuminate the processes by which AEthelwold built up the endowment of the refounded abbey in the 970s and 980s.
This volume contains authoritative editions of these 31 texts, plus a further 4 related documents. There is a full commentary on every text, with translation of all Old English documents and passages, and detailed discussion of boundary clauses. The Introduction provides a detailed elucidation of the history of the monastery in its two incarnations. This includes a ground-breaking new evaluation of the sources for the history of Medeshamstede, which overturns the conventional understanding of the status of this house and its supposed early 'colonies', and also much new material on the fate of this area of the East Midlands during the period in the 9th and early 10th centuries when it came under Danish rule.
This volume will be of great value to those studying Anglo-Saxon and ecclesiastical history, to local historians and to specialists in other fields, such as medieval Latin, Old English and place-name studies.

The Chattooga River has run through the American consciousness since the movie Deliverance thrust it into the national spotlight. But this National Wild and Scenic River is much more than the make-believe set of a suburbanite nightmare. People travel from all over the country to run its rapids, cast into its current for trout and hike the miles of trails that meander through thousands of acres of woods in the Chattooga watershed. One of the last free-flowing rivers in the Southeast, the river muscles fifty-seven miles through a southern deciduous forest with one of the highest levels of biodiversity in the country and is home to many species of rare wildflowers. Join author Laura Ann Garren as she describes the history and wonder of the real Chattooga River.

While the Adirondack Mountains are New York's most beautiful region, they have also been plagued by insidious crimes and the nasty escapades of notorious lawbreakers. In 1935, public enemy number one, Dutch Schultz, went on trial and was acquitted in an Adirondack courtroom. Crooks have tried creative methods to sidestep forestry laws that protect the flora of the state park. Members of the infamous Windfall Gang, led by Charles Wadsworth, terrorized towns and hid out in the high mountains until their dramatic 1899 capture. In the 1970s, the Adirondack Serial Killer, Robert Francis Garrow, petrified campers in the hills. Join local author Dennis Webster as he explores the wicked deeds and sinister characters hidden among the Adirondacks' peaks.

With a blend of narrative and analysis, this book explores the extent to which mercenaries have been used, from Sumer to Rome, and the reasons governments hired them when they could conscript native citizens.

Take a journey through Arkansas' forgotten past and find the colorful characters, unusual stories and strange occurrences left out of conventional history books. Authors Edward and Karen Underwood weave fact and fun in this offbeat, gripping and little-known history of the Natural State. Discover the Tantrabobus monster rumored to lurk in the hills of the Ozarks, meet the imposters who faked the state's first history museum and learn the story behind Arkansas' lost amusement park, Dogpatch, USA. Truth really is stranger than fiction in Arkansas, and this one-of-a-kind state has the stories to prove it

From its humble beginnings as a place to swim and row a boat, Ideal Beach eventually became Indiana Beach, a small amusement park where families could have good old-fashioned fun. Founded by Earl Spackman in 1926, its popularity was bolstered by the addition of a dance hall that drew the top bands of the nation during the Depression and war years of the 1940s. When Earl passed away, his son Tom continued his legacy, setting Indiana Beach on a course that would make it one of the most popular vacation resorts and amusement parks in the entire Midwest, delighting nearly one million visitors every year.

A military operation unlike any other on American soil, Morgan's Raid was characterized by incredible speed, superhuman endurance and innovative tactics. One of the nation's most colorful leaders, Confederate general John Hunt Morgan, took his cavalry through enemy-occupied territory in three states in one of the longest offensives of the Civil War. The effort produced the only battles fought north of the Ohio River and reached farther north than any other regular Confederate force. With twenty-five maps and more than forty illustrations, Morgan's Raid historian David L. Mowery takes a new look at this unprecedented event in American history, one historians rank among the world's greatest land-based raids since Elizabethan times.

Though there are more automobiles than harvesters on the roads these days, folks in "Wythe County," Virginia, keep their memories and traditions preserved in these conversations with the local twentieth-century farmers who spent their entire lives working this land. Visit with James Kegley, a fourth-generation farmer discussing his family's cattle and poultry drives to the train in Wytheville, and Agnes Eades as she shares stories about the night before butchering day for the hogs; join Fred Etter as he remembers the first tractor he ever saw and June Huffard as she talks about her dairy farm. Picture the days when starting the plow meant cracking the whip and "Wythe County" was the 'Cabbage Capital of the World.'

From the Native American tribes who first inhabited the land to the gold rush prospectors who flocked to the burgeoning town in the 1860s, Pocatello's legacy is defined by fascinating historical figures and colorful characters. But many restless souls from the city's past refuse to fade quietly into history. Join author John Brian as he records the voices and visions that haunt Pocatello today. Whether it's the long-dead theater devotee who still attends shows at Frazier Hall, the specter of a woman who evaded a judge at the Bannock County Courthouse or the many spirits that haunt a farm built on sacred Shoshoni tribal land, this collection proves that the Gate City is flooded with ghosts.

Washington Irving called the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York a "spellbound region," and the ghosts that linger from more than four hundred years of history provide proof of Irving's intuition. In Hudson, Maggie Houghtaling's ghost haunts the "Register-Star" building, where she was hanged in 1817 for murdering her child--a crime for which she was later cleared. The ghost of a young Native American girl haunts Claverack Creek, where she threw herself into the water when her father forbade her to be with the man she loved. In Greenport, Peter Hallenbeck was murdered by his nephews in his home, where his spirit still lingers. Discover these and other eerie tales of hauntings in the Catskill Mountains.

Explore the haunted history of the RMS "Queen Mary."