Christmas Day, 1914. German and British troops have been fighting tirelessly for 5 months in one of the bloodiest wars in human history. Suddenly, an unfamiliar sound breaks the tension. A German song, followed by another. Read on for an excerpt from The First World War: A Complete History, covering the remarkable true story of the Christmas truce of 1914.
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Check out an excerpt from Lee Server’s Handsome Johnny, a vivid account of Johnny Rosselli’s astonishing fifty-year career. From the bloody years of bootlegging in the Twenties as the last protégé of Al Capone to the modern era of organized crime, the mob’s “Man in Hollywood,” introduced big-time crime to the movie industry.
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The fifth and final excerpt from Revolutionary Brothers takes place in Paris in 1789, as Thomas Jefferson witnesses the civil unrest marking the beginning of the French Revolution.
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In our fourth excerpt from Revolutionary Brothers, the Marquis de Lafayette returns to Paris where he is received as a war hero after the triumph of Yorktown in 1781.
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Acclaimed as the ultimate New York movie director, Sidney Lumet began his astonishing directing career with the now classic 12 Angry Men, followed by such landmark films as Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, and Network. In this excerpt from the highly-entertaining biography, Sidney Lumet: A Life, Maura Spiegel discusses Lumet’s war experience and its lasting impact on him.
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The History Reader