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A suspenseful narrative and spiritive rendition of the life of
Galileo.
This is the epic story of the battle for the Holy Land, and the two
opposing warriors at its centre: legendary crusader Richard the
Lionheart, and Sultan Saladin, iconic hero of the Islamic world.
Richard Plantagenet, commonly depicted as a romantic figure,
emerges here in all his dark complexity at the head of the
blood-soaked Crusades. Likewise Reston offers a compelling portrait
of Salah ad-Din, a wise and cultured Sunni Muslim whose recapture
of Jerusalem in 1187 set the stage for his mighty clash with the
forces of Christian Europe. 'This book is a timely reminder that
(we must hope) George Bush didn't know what he was talking about
when he uttered the infamous 'c' word after September 11. For the
crusades were among the most disgusting blots on the human record,
the men who embarked on them doing so in the name of their god,
also known as the Prince of Peace; and they, too, thought they were
defending the only civilisation on earth.' Geoffrey Moorhouse,
Guardian
In 1521, the Catholic Church declared war on Martin Luther. The
German monk had already been excommunicated the year before, after
nailing his Ninety-Five Theses,which accused the Church of rampant
corruption,to the door of a Saxon church. Now, the Holy Roman
Emperor Charles V called for Luther to be apprehended and punished
as a notorious heretic." The edict was akin to a death sentence: If
Luther was caught, he would almost inevitably be burned at the
stake, his fragile movement crushed, and the nascent Protestant
Reformation strangled in its cradle.In Luther's Fortress ,
acclaimed historian James Reston, Jr. describes this crucial but
little-known episode in Luther's life and reveals its pivotal role
in Christian history. Realizing the danger to their leader,
Luther's followers spirited him away to Wartburg Castle, deep in
central Germany. There he hid for the next ten months, as his
fate,and that of the Reformation,hung in the balance. Yet instead
of cowering in fear, Luther spent his time at Wartburg
strengthening his movement and refining his theology in ways that
would guarantee the survival of Protestantism. He devoted himself
to biblical study and spiritual contemplation he fought both his
papist critics and his own inner demons (and, legend has it, the
devil himself) and he held together his fractious and increasingly
radicalized reform movement from afar. During this time Luther also
crystallized some of his most significant ideas about Christianity
and translated the New Testament into German,an accomplishment
that, perhaps more than any other, solidified his legacy and spread
his bold new religious philosophy across Europe.Drawing on Luther's
correspondence, notes, and other writings, Luther's Fortress
presents an earthy, gripping portrait of the Reformation's
architect at this transformational moment, revealing him at his
most productive, courageous, and profound.
From the acclaimed author of "Warriors of God" comes a riveting
account of the pivotal events of 1492, when towering political
ambitions, horrific religious excesses, and a drive toward
international conquest changed the world forever.
James Reston, Jr., brings to life the epic story of Spain's effort
to consolidate its own burgeoning power by throwing off the yoke of
the Vatican. By waging war on the remaining Moors in Granada and
unleashing the Inquisitor Torquemada on Spain's Jewish and
"converso "population, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella attained
enough power and wealth to fund Columbus' expedition to America and
to chart a Spanish destiny separate from that of Italy. With rich
characterizations of the central players, this engrossing narrative
captures all the political and religious ferment of this crucial
moment on the eve of the discovery of the New World.
The Watergate scandal began with a break-in at the office of the
Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel on June 17,
1971, and ended when President Gerald Ford granted Richard M. Nixon
a pardon on September 8, 1974, one month after Nixon resigned from
office in disgrace. Effectively removed from the reach of
prosecutors, Nixon returned to California, uncontrite and
unconvicted, convinced that time would exonerate him of any
wrongdoing and certain that history would remember his great
accomplishments--the opening of China and the winding down of the
Vietnam War--and forget his "mistake," the "pipsqueak thing" called
Watergate.
In 1977, three years after his resignation, Nixon agreed to a
series of interviews with television personality David Frost.
Conducted over twelve days, they resulted in twenty-eight hours of
taped material, which were aired on prime-time television and
watched by more than 50 million people worldwide. Nixon, a skilled
lawyer by training, was paid $1 million for the interviews,
confident that this exposure would launch him back into public
life. Instead, they sealed his fate as a political pariah.
James Reston, Jr., was David Frost's Watergate advisor for the
interiews, and The Conviction of Richard Nixon is his intimate,
behind-the-scenes account of his involvement. Originally written in
1977 and published now for the first time, this book helped inspire
Peter Morgan's hit play Frost/Nixon. Reston doggedly researched the
voluminous Watergate record and worked closely with Frost to
develop the interrogation strategy. Even at the time, Reston
recognized the historical importance of the Frost/Nixon interviews;
they would result either in Nixon'sde facto conviction and
vindication for the American people, or in his exoneration and
public rehabilitation in the hands of a lightweight. Focused,
driven, and committed to exposing the truth, Reston worked
tirelessly to arm Frost with the information he needed to force
Nixon to admit his culpability.
In "The Conviction of Richard Nixon," Reston provides a
fascinating, fly-on-the-wall account of his involvement in the
Nixon interviews as David Frost's Watergate adviser. Written in
1977 immediately following these celebrated television interviews
and published now for the first time, "The Conviction of Richard
Nixon" explains how a British journalist of waning consequence
drove the famously wily and formidable Richard Nixon to say, in an
apparent personal epiphany, "I have impeached myself."
"From the Hardcover edition."
As millennium fever mounts, doomsayers once again prophesize that
the end of the world is near. The last time the world faced the end
of the millennium, it was a chaotic turning point in European
history, flavored with a nearly magical sensibility of an
apocalyptic age. In "The Last Apocalypse", James Reston, Jr., shows
us in rich, vivid historical detail the last time the world faced
the end of the millennium.
Cataclysmic changes and widespread upheaval marked the decades
around A.D. 1000, much as change continues to rock our world today.
The old order was crumbling anti confusing new ideas were gaining
hold. Random violence end the bloody victories by the Vikings,
Magyars, and Moors convinced many Europeans the apocalypse was upon
them. And then, the tide turned -- the Viking gods were dethroned,
the shamans of the Magyars massacred, the glorious Moorish
caliphate disintegrated, and, finally, the sign of the cross held
sway from Spain to Russia.
James Reston, Jr.'s enthralling saga of how the Christian
kingdoms converted, Conquered, and slaughtered their way to
dominance the turn of the last millennium brings to life
unforgettable historical characters who embodied the struggle for
the soul of Europe.
A bestselling historian recounts sixteen years that shook the
world- the epic clash between Europe and the Ottoman Turks that
ended the Renaissance and brought Islam to the gates of Vienna
In the bestselling "Warriors of God" and "Dogs of God," James
Reston, Jr., limned two epochal conflicts between Islam and
Christendom. Here he examines the ultimate battle in that
centuries-long war, which found Europe at its most vulnerable and
Islam on the attack. This drama was propelled by two astonishing
young sovereigns: Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Turkish sultan
Suleyman the Magnificent. Though they represented two colliding
worlds, they were remarkably similar. Each was a poet and cultured
cosmopolitan; each was the most powerful man on his continent; each
was called "Defender of the Faith"; and each faced strident
religious rebellion in his domain. Charles was beset by the
"heresy" of Martin Luther and his fervid adherents, even while
tensions between him and the pope threatened to boil over, and the
upstart French king Francis I harried Charles's realm by land and
sea. Suleyman was hardly more comfortable on his throne. He had
earned his crown by avoiding the grim Ottoman tradition of royal
fratricide. Shiites in the East were fighting off the Sunni Turks'
cruel repression of their "heresy." The ferocity and skill of
Suleyman's Janissaries had expanded the Ottoman Empire to its
greatest extent ever, but these slave soldiers became rebellious
when foreign wars did not engage them.
With Europe newly hobbled and the Turks suffused with restless
vigor, the stage was set for a drama that unfolded from Hungary to
Rhodes and ultimately to Vienna itself, which both sides thought
the Turks could win. If that happened, it was generally agreed that
Europe would become Muslim as far west as the Rhine.
During these same years, Europe was roiled by constant internal
tumult that saw, among other spectacles, the Diet of Worms, the
Sack of Rome, and an actual wrestling match between the English and
French monarchs in which Henry VIII's pride was badly hurt.
Would-could-this fractious continent be united to repulse a
fearsome enemy?
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