A list of the one hundred most influential people in history features descriptions of the careers, contributions, and accomplishments of the political and religious leaders, inventors, writers, artists, and others who changed the course of history. Simultaneous.

Cited in Books for College Libraries, 3d ed. and Guide to Reference Books, this standard reference, accessible to high school students and above, presents the life and political careers of all the American presidents. Arranged chronologically, the 20-plus page essays written by scholars, historians, and journalists are preceded by a general introduction on the nature of the presidency and followed by a chapter on the role of the first ladies from Martha Washington to Laura Bush. New information includes the second term of the Clinton administration and the first year of George W. Bush's tenure. The appendices include a general bibliography of the presidency; a table of biographical, political and historical data; and a description of the executive office of the president. Includes 100 b & w illustrations and two eight-page color inserts. Edited by Graff (emeritus history, Columbia U.). Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The French political philosopher Raymond Aron once observed that the twentieth century "could have been Germany's century." In 1900, the country was Europe's preeminent power, its material strength and strident militaristic ethos apparently balanced by a vital culture and extraordinary scientific achievement. It was poised to achieve greatness. In Einstein's German World, the eminent historian Fritz Stern explores the ambiguous promise of Germany before Hitler, as well as its horrifying decline into moral nihilism under Nazi rule, and aspects of its remarkable recovery since World War II. He does so by gracefully blending history and biography in a sequence of finely drawn studies of Germany's great scientists and of German-Jewish relations before and during Hitler's regime. Stern's central chapter traces the complex friendship of Albert Einstein and the Nobel Prize-winning chemist Fritz Haber, contrasting their responses to German life and to their Jewish heritage. Haber, a convert to Christianity and a firm German patriot until the rise of the Nazis; Einstein, a committed internationalist and pacifist, and a proud though secular Jew. Other chapters, also based on new archival sources, consider the turbulent and interrelated careers of the physicist Max Planck, an austere and powerful figure who helped to make Berlin a happy, productive place for Einstein and other legendary scientists; of Paul Ehrlich, the founder of chemotherapy; of Walther Rathenau, the German-Jewish industrialist and statesman tragically assassinated in 1922; and of Chaim Weizmann, chemist, Zionist, and first president of Israel, whose close relations with his German colleagues is here for the first time recounted. Stern examines the still controversial way that historians have dealt with World War I and Germans have dealt with their nation's defeat, and he analyzes the conflicts over the interpretations of Germany's past that persist to this day. He also writes movingly about the psychic cost of Germany's reunification in 1990, the reconciliation between Germany and Poland, and the challenges and prospects facing Germany today. At once historical and personal, provocative and accessible, Einstein's German World illuminates the issues that made Germany's and Europe's past and present so important in a tumultuous century of creativity and violence.

AU Author. How do we rank a man who raises millions for people in need but whose actions waste millions in support of unworthy mates and poor public policy? How do we define someone who on his own finds jobs for the out of work but who routinely trashes the careers of others? These are some of the many paradoxes of Alan Jones. Why is he adored? Why is he reviled? Why does this talk radio host have the power to dine with presidents, lecture prime ministers and premiers, and influence government ministers? And how is it that he could not only survive a scandal such as the 'cash for comment' affair, but go on to greater reward? Chris Masters seeks the answers to these questions and in doing so reveals a complex individual and the potent relationships he has with both Struggle Street and the big end of town. Compelling and probing, Jonestown takes us to the hazardous intersection of populism and politics. It reaches deep into a powerful industry and exposes the myth and the magic of a very powerful man.