Martin W Sandler

In 1897, whaling in the Arctic waters off Alaska's coast was as dangerous as it was lucrative. And in that particular year, winter blasted early, bringing storms and ice packs that caught eight American whale ships and three hundred sailors off guard. Their ships locked in ice, with no means of escape, the whalers had limited provisions on board, and little hope of surviving until warmer temperatures arrived many months later. Here is the incredible...

The Whydah started its life as a slave ship. Launched in 1716 for use in the Triangular Trade, it had been divested of its human cargo in the Cariggean and was laden with riches for the return to England when it was taken by pirates. Black Sam Bellamy, one of the most successful pirates of the time, made the Whydah his flagship and loaded it with loot from vessels plundered along the East Coast of America - until one stormy night in 1717, when it...

"A nation in need of hope, the most powerful rocket ever launched, and the first three men to break the bounds of Earth: Apollo 8 was headed to the moon. In 1957, when the USSR launched Sputnik I, the first man-made satellite to orbit Earth, America's rival in the Cold War claimed victory on a new frontier. The Space Race had begun, and the United States was losing. Closer to home, a decade of turbulence would soon have Americans reeling, with the...

A definitive collection of letters by and to JFK offers unique insights into his character and times, in a volume that includes correspondences with such figures as Martin Luther King Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt, and a young John Kerry.