This handsome tribute to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. traces the history of the museum from conception to construction on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary. Opened with great fanfare, the National Gallery was "the richest single gift from any individual to any nation ever." That individual was financier Andrew Mellon. Kopper's succinct biography covers Mellon's personal and political life as well as his passion for collecting the paintings of old masters. Mellon's bequest stipulated the museum's name, location, and details of governance, ensuring continued high standards and a vital future. Kopper includes profiles of the architect and various museum directors, including Mellon's son Paul, as well as illustrations that document some of the collection's highlights. ISBN 0-8109-3658-5: $60.00 (For use only in the library)

This is unquestionably the most poignant, critical evaluation of the recent papal Apostolic Letter. The authors examine the Biblical foundations upon which the pope seeks to buttress his cleverly crafted letter. But even the undoubted skill of the pope and his scholarly advisors cannot mask the fallacies of the pope's conclusions. The authors show emphatically that the pope's assertions are in deep contradiction to the record of the Holy Bible and that of history.

The stories of seven popes who ruled at seven different critical periods in the 600 years leading into the Reformation.

"This book presents for the first time a comprehensive overview of the seminal early work of a century of American architects--including Richard Morris Hunt, H. H. Richardson, Raymond Hood, and Charles Follen McKim--who studied at the prestigious and influential École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, before going on to design and build many of this nation's most important buildings and monuments."--Cover, page [4].

Essential Colonial Revival–style stone houses in bucolic settings—on hillsides, beside streams—and their inviting interiors, by the architect who popularized the beloved form. Stone Houses showcases a beloved kind of home that many of us aspire to own and live in—a place of warmth and security, of charm and romance. The stone house speaks to a very basic dream of stability and comfort, and the houses featured here represent the epitome of this dream. Built in traditional styles with artful construction and considered design between 1904 and 1943, these gems display the hallmarks we associate with the stone house, here polished and beautifully presented: deep fireplaces, thick beamed ceilings, wide plank floors, and country kitchens. Focusing on the work of the eminent architect R. Brognard Okie, who is credited with having greatly contributed to a popular appreciation and understanding of early American domestic architecture and who has had a lasting impact on American residential design, this book will both enchant the reader and serve as an unprecedented resource.

Even as historians credit Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II with hastening the end of the Cold War, they have failed to recognize the depth or significance of the bond that developed between the two leaders. Acclaimed scholar and bestselling author Paul Kengor changes that. In this fascinating book, he reveals a singular bond—which included a spiritual connection between the Catholic pope and the Protestant president—that drove the two men to confront what they knew to be the great evil of the twentieth century: Soviet communism. Reagan and John Paul II almost didn't have the opportunity to forge this relationship: just six weeks apart in the spring of 1981, they took bullets from would-be assassins. But their strikingly similar near-death experiences brought them close together—to Moscow's dismay.Based on Kengor's tireless archival digging and his unique access to Reagan insiders, A Pope and a President is full of revelations. It takes you inside private meetings between Reagan and John Paul II and into the Oval Office, the Vatican, the CIA, the Kremlin, and many points beyond. Nancy Reagan called John Paul II her husband's "closest friend"; Reagan himself told Polish visitors that the pope was his "best friend." When you read this book, you will understand why. As kindred spirits, Ronald Reagan and John Paul II united in pursuit of a supreme objective—and in doing so they changed history.