Five Chimneys: The Story of Auschwitz
by Olga Lengyel
from Academy Chicago Publishers
Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account
from Arcade Publishing
Auschwitz was one of the first books to bring the full horror of the Nazi death camps to the American public; this is, as the New York Review of Books said, "the best brief account of the Auschwitz experience available."
Auschwitz was one of the first books to bring the full horror of the Nazi death camps to the American public; this is, as the New York Review of Books said, "the best brief account of the Auschwitz experience available."
Fin-De-Siecle Vienna: Politics and Culture
by Carl E. Schorske
from Vintage
A landmark book from one of the truly original scholars of our time: a magnificent revelation of turn-of-the-century Vienna where out of a crisis of political and social disintegration so much of modern art and thought was born.
"Not only is it a splendid exploration of several aspects of early modernism in their political context; it is an indicator of how the discipline of intellectual history is currently practiced by its most able and ambitious craftsmen. It is also a moving vindication of historical study itself, in the face of modernism's defiant suggestion that history is obsolete."
-- David A. Hollinger, History Book Club Review
"Each of [the seven separate studies] can be read separately....Yet they are so artfully designed and integrated that one who reads them in order is impressed by the book's wholeness and the momentum of its argument."
-- Gordon A. Craig, The New Republic
"A profound work...on one of the most important chapters of modern intellectual history" -- H.R. Trevor-Roper, front page, The New York Times Book Review
"Invaluable to the social and political historian...as well as to those more concerned with the arts" -- John Willett, The New York Review of Books
"A work of original synthesis and scholarship. Engrossing."
-- Newsweek
The Siege of Vienna: The Last Great Trial Between Cross & Crescent
by John Stoye
from Pegasus Books
"In his splendid study The Siege of Vienna, the Oxford historian John Stoye provides a detailed account of the intricate machinations between the Habsburgs and the Ottomans. Mr. Stoye's description of the siege itself is masterly. He seems to know every inch of ground, every earthwork and fortification around the Imperial City, and he follows the action meticulously."-The Wall Street Journal
"Worthy of the pen of Herodotus. . . . It is a measure of the fascination of Mr. Stoye's subject that one should think of comparing his treatment of it with the work of the greatest historians."-The Times Literary Supplement
"John Stoye is the master of every aspect of his subject."-Daily Telegraph
The siege of Vienna in 1683 was one of the turning points in European history. So great was its impact that countries normally jealous and hostile sank their differences to throw back the armies of Islam and their savage Tartar allies.
The consequences of defeat were momentous: The Ottomans lost half of their European territories, which led to the final collapse of their empire, and the Habsburgs turned their attention from France and the Rhine frontier to the rich pickings of the Balkans. That hot September day in 1683 witnessed the last great trial of strength between the East and the West-and opened an epoch in European history that lasted until the First World War.
John Stoye, the author of several books on European history, is a fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he lives.
A Nervous Splendor: Vienna 1888-1889
by Frederic Morton
from Penguin (Non-Classics)
The Bloody Countess: Atrocities of Erzsebet Bathory
by Valentine Penrose
from Solar Books
Descended from an aristocratic European family, Erzsebet Bathory bore the psychotic aberrations of centuries of intermarriage. From adolescence on, she indulged in sadistic lesbian fantasies, and by middle age, had regressed to a mirror-fixated state of pathological necro-sadism involving witchcraft, torture, blood-drinking, and more. Her 16th century reign of cruelty remains unsurpassed in the annals of mass murder, with the Countess? depredations on the virgin girls of the Carpathians leading to some 650 deaths id her many castles equipped with torture chambers. This is a true, disturbing case history of a female psychopath, a chillingly lyrical account beautifully translated by Alexander Trocchi, evoking the decadent melancholy of doomed, delinquent aristocracy in a dark age of superstition. The book contains an appendix featuring actual transcripts from Bathory's trial and has inspired many horror movies, such as Hammer's Countess Dracula.
De Sade did not know of Erzs,bet Bathory's existence, but doubtless her atrocities would have roused his most vicious excitement. -- Georges Bataille, The Tears Of Eros
My Brother's Voice: How a Young Hungarian Boy Survived the Holocaust: A True Story
by Stephen Nasser
from Stephens Press
Stephen "Pista" Nasser was 13 years old when the Nazis whisked him and his family away from their home in Hungary to Auschwitz. His memories of that terrifying experience are still vivid, and his love for his brother Andris still brings a husky tone to his voice when he remembers the terrible ordeal they endured together. Stephens account of the Holocaust, told in the refreshingly direct and optimistic language of a young boy, will help every reader to understand that the Holocaust was real, and that, if you have enough love, determination, and will power, there is always a better tomorrow!
Budapest 1900: A Historical Portrait of a City and Its Culture
by John Lukacs
from Grove Press
The Habsburgs
by Andrew Wheatcroft
from Penguin (Non-Classics)
On the Surface of Things: Images of the Extraordinary in Science
by Felice Frankel
from Harvard University Press
Using innovative photographic technology, Felice Frankel finds startling abstract beauty on the surfaces of objects all around us. Chemist George M. Whitesides explains each photograph, describing why and how each of these phenomena occur.
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