Books like Liberty or death by McPhee, Peter

Jared Diamond explains how geography, biology, and human ingenuity shaped the world’s unequal societies in his Pulitzer‑winning study of civilization and social evolution.

Eckhart Tolle guides readers toward a pain‑free existence by teaching how to recognize and release mental patterns that cause suffering, encouraging living fully in the present moment.

A compelling overview of American history through the eyes and experiences of its women, workers, African Americans, Native Americans, immigrants, and the working poor.

Samuel P. Huntington’s seminal work explores how rising international tensions after the Cold War may be driven by clash among cultural civilizations, offering a detailed theoretical framework beyond his 1993 Foreign Affairs article.

Francis Fukuyama traces how diverse societies have arrived at their present political arrangements, exploring the historical and comparative routes that shape modern states.

A comparative study of the American, French, and Russian revolutions.

David Graeber examines democracy’s history and its failure to represent ordinary citizens, urging a radical rethinking of the democratic process that could address America’s growing crises.

This concise survey of the French Revolution and Napoleonic period offers an alternative to the long, detailed texts more suited to advanced study. Author Jeremy D. Popkin introduces readers to the major events that comprise the story of the French Revolution, to the different ways in which historians have interpreted them, to the political, social, and cultural origins of the Revolution, and to the latest methodological approaches. Beginning with the prerevolutionary crisis, Popkin leads readers through the dramatic events that led to the storming of the Bastille in 1789. Along the way, he discusses the effort to create a constitutional regime, the collapse of the new constitution, and the overthrow of the monarchy. This newly revised edition provides expanded discussion of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen and the king's trial. In addition, A Short History of the French Revolution: explores the Jacobin dictatorship and the Reign of Terror; examines the search for stability under the Directory; features in-depth coverage of Napoleon's Consulate and Empire; and looks at the long-term consequences of the Revolution for France and the world.

"The assault on the Bastille, the Reign of Terror, Danton mocking his executioner, Robespierre dispensing a fearful justice, and the archetypal gadfly Marat -- the events and figures of the French Revolution have exercised a hold on the historical imagination for more than 200 years. It has been a template for heroic insurrection and, to more conservative minds, a cautionary tale. In the hands of Eric Hazan, author of The Invention of Paris, the revolution becomes a rational and pure struggle for emancipation. In this new history, the first significant account of the French Revolution in over twenty years, Hazan maintains that it fundamentally changed the Western world -- for the better. Looking at history from the bottom up, providing an account of working people and peasants, Hazan asks, how did they see their opportunities? What were they fighting for? What was the Terror and could it be justified? And how was the revolution stopped in its tracks? The People's History of the French Revolution is a vivid retelling of events, bringing them to life with a multitude of voices. Only in this way, by understanding the desires and demands of the lower classes, can the revolutionary bloodshed and the implacable will of a man such as Robespierre be truly understood." -- Publisher's description

A biography of the Virginia lawyer, politician, and patriot whose great powers of speech helped inspire colonists to support the cause of American liberty at the start of the Revolutionary War.

xlv, 1133, A-131 pages : 29 cm

The reign of Louis XVI, which ended in 1793 with the guillotining of the king and his queen, Marie-Antoinette, is a dramatic and crucial part of French history. Yet there have been no scholarly studies of Louis in any language, a result of the destruction or dispersal of the king's personal papers and documents. John Hardman, who has spent many years tracking down the primary sources, now fills the gap with this engrossing and perceptive account of Louis's reign. Hardman divides his story into three periods. His account of the first twelve years of Louis's reign, from 1774 to 1786, penetrates the secret workings of absolute monarchy in the last stage of its development. During this period, Hardman shows, the King was capable, especially in the fields of foreign affairs and public finance, but also austere, enigmatic and at times callous. The second part of the book, from 1787-9, opens with Louis's great personal reform initiative, presented to the Assembly of Notables and one of the pivotal events of the reign. Here Hardman discusses the disintegration of the regime, the loss of Louis' personal composure, and the corresponding rise in the influence of Marie-Antoinette. The King's often misunderstood attitude to the Estates-General in 1789, he argues, determined the whole character and course of the French Revolution. The main political theme of the final section, from 1789-93, is the King's attitude towards the Revolution as embodied in the Constitution of 1791. But here the political drama is replaced in part by a human one: as Louis's political role declined, his character, tempered by suffering, appears increasingly sympathetic. In the end, Louis emerges as a ruler with clear ideas and a genuine concern for the French people, and the flight to Varennes and the King's imprisonment and execution take on a new poignancy.