In this fascinating guide to every aspect of Queen Victoria's life, author Helen Rappaport analyzes the queen's personality, celebrates her achievements, and details the shortcomings of her empire, both in Britain, with its continuing divide between rich and poor, and overseas, where Britain's great empire was won by repression and exploitation.

A-Z entries--including topics barely touched in standard biographies--cover things like the various assassination attempts on her life, her interest in dancing and Jack the Ripper's murders, and how her husband Prince Albert introduced the...

George Washington dominated his era like few other Americans. Yet the complexity of the historic events he was involved in and the sheer magnitude of his correspondence--the most voluminous in colonial America--can be overwhelming for researchers.

The goal of this volume is to make the larger-than-life figure of George Washington accessible to modern researchers. In its 200 entries readers will discover a detailed and surprising portrait. Washington was not a cold, aloof, and unknowable man, but was extremely convivial by nature; a general who commanded the Continental army without pay...

Andrew Johnson was--and is--an American paradox. He never attended school, yet fought for public education. He was a Southern slaveholder who opposed secession and enforced emancipation. Born into poverty, he became the 17th president of the United States--and the first U.S. president to be impeached.

This new volume thoroughly examines the troubled career of our most unpopular president--not to resuscitate his reputation, but because his personal contradictions reflected those of his country: a democratic nation conceived in liberty, yet existing half slave and half free; an economy of...

Universally acknowledged as one of the most prolific activists of the 19th century, Susan B. Anthony devoted most of her adult life to humanitarian reform. She was an integral player in nearly every social reform movement of her time, including temperance, women's suffrage, and abolitionism.

The publication of "Susan B. Anthony: A Biographical Companion" coincides with the 150th anniversary of the women's rights movement in the United States. More than 100 entries cover the significant events, people, publications, movements, and organizations associated with Anthony, and each entry...

This illustrated A-Z encyclopedia provides easy access to information about the emperor Napoleon. Over 300 entries cover significant events, people, and other topics such as the principal Napoleonic campaigns, all the major battles including Waterloo and Austerlitz, Napoleon's most important generals and marshals, Josephine de Beauharnais, and the Napoleonic Code. "Napoleon" also includes primary source documents, a handy chronology of key events, a bibliography, and an index.

To get to the top, Joseph Stalin outmaneuvered Lenin, Trotsky, Kirov, and a legion of equally ruthless revolutionaries. This accessible and easy to read reference work reveals the more personal side of the Machiavellian mastermind, who not only orchestrated the Great Terror but also forged the USSR into a world power.

"Joseph Stalin: A Biographical Companion" offers balanced coverage and makes use of new information from Soviet archives, while at the same time avoids mind-numbing communist jargon and terminology. Also included are scores of rare illustrations, some never before...

In 1844, James K. Polk was not a promising presidential nominee--he was not popular, charismatic, or even well known. But by the time he left office in 1849, he had acquired the enormous Oregon Territory by negotiation and had taken by force more than half of Mexico's territory, an area of about 500,000 square miles.

Yet Polk's territorial successes inspired the rancorous debate over whether slavery should be allowed in the new territories--a debate that ended in civil war. Modern critics charge that Polk's actions toward Mexico were amoral if not immoral. In this comprehensive...