Deliberately bypassing major cities, former New York Times Rome bureau-chief Hofmann, in a highly enjoyable travel book, concentrates on his favorite locales to visit. The author, who has resided in Italy for 30 years, evokes the distinct character of eac

From pre-Columbian creation myths and the first European voyages of discovery and conquest to the Age of Reagan, here is "nothing less than a unified history of the Western Hemisphere . . . recounted in vivid prose."--The New Yorker . A unique and epic hi

Since September 11, 2001, Seymour M. Hersh has riveted readers -- and outraged the Bush Administration -- with his stories in The New Yorker, including his breakthrough pieces on the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. Now, in Chain of Command, he brings together

Paul Volcker and Toyoo Gyohten enjoyed remarkable careers as economic statesmen for the United States and Japan. Both Volcker, former Federal Reserve Board Chairman, and Gyohten, former vice minister for international affairs at the all-powerful Japanese

When Phillip Swallow and Professor Morris Zapp participate in their universities' Anglo-American exchange scheme, the Fates play a hand, and each academic finds himself enmeshed in the life of his counterpart on the opposite side of the Atlantic. Nobody i