NCW Libraries

Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 - February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. A spokesman for the Nation of Islam until 1964, he was a vocal advocate for Black empowerment and the promotion of Islam within the Black community. On February 21, 1965, he was assassinated in New York City. Three Nation...

A concise, star-studded retelling of Italy's past, from Caesar and Augustus to da Vinci and Michelangelo, tracing the story of a country with prodigious global influence-from a foremost author of historic Italy. The calendar. The Senate. The university. The piano, the heliocentric model, and the pizzeria. It's hard to imagine a world without Italian influence-and easy to assume that inventions like these could only come from a strong, stable peninsula,...

The racers battle over steep inclines, through narrow mountain passages, and across the arid Gobi Desert. Competitors endure torrential rain and choking dust. There are barely any roads, and petrol is almost impossible to find. More than its many adventures, the Peking-to-Paris Motor Challenge took place on the precipice of a new world. As the twentieth century dawned, imperial regimes in China and Russia were crumbling, paving the way for the rise...

In October 1941, Hitler launched Operation Typhoon, the German drive to capture Moscow and knock the Soviet Union out of the war. As the last chance to escape the dire implications of a winter campaign, Hitler directed seventy-five German divisions, almost two million men and three of Germany's four panzer groups into the offensive, resulting in huge victories at Viaz'ma and Briansk, among the biggest battles of the Second World War. David Stahel's...

Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Though born with the ability to see and hear, at 19 months-old she contracted an acute illness that left her both deaf and blind. Eventually, 20-year-old Anne Sullivan, herself visually impaired, became Keller's speech instructor. It was the beginning of a 49-year-long relationship during which Sullivan evolved into Keller's governess and eventually her companion. In 1914, Sullivan's health...

Best-selling social historian Tessa Boase takes us behind the scenes of London's lost department stores, bringing back to life a vanished era of confidence and style. Today's consumer has little idea of the sheer dazzle of these 'Halls of Temptation' during the golden age of shopping - of their sheer theatrical spectacle, the overwhelming assault on the senses, the astonishing architectural élan. From the fabulous Art Deco of Derry & Toms, to...

Beyond 1619 brings an Atlantic and hemispheric perspective to the year 1619 as a marker of American slavery's origins and the beginnings of the Black experience in what would become the United States by situating the roots of racial slavery in a broader, comparative context. In recent years, an extensive public dialogue regarding the long shadow of racism in the United States has pushed Americans to confront the insidious history of race-based slavery...

Mahatma Gandhi (October 2, 1869 - January 30, 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule. He inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.

J.B. Rhine (1895 - 1980), widely considered to be the 'Father of Modern Parapsychology,' was the world's leading investigator of psychic phenomena, ESP and the paranormal. He founded the parapsychology research lab at Duke University and the Journal of Parapsychology. Dr. Rhine, who coined the term 'extrasensory perception' (ESP) to describe the apparent ability of some people to acquire information without the use of the known five senses), wrote...

It was a time of revolution. The Roman Revolution describes the little known "crisis of the third century", and how it led to a revolutionary new Roman Empire. Long before the more famous collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century, in the years between AD 235-275, barbarian invasions, civil war, and plague devastated ancient Rome. Out of this ordeal came new leaders, new government, new armies, and a new vision of what it was to be...