“Though we cannot learn leadership, we can learn from leaders, which is why this volume is so engaging and valuable.”—Boston Globe What made FDR a more successful leader during the Depression crisis than Hoover? Why was Eisenhower more effective as supreme commander at war than he was as president? Who was Pauli Murray and why was she a pivotal figure in the civil rights movement? Find the answers to these questions and more in essays by great historians including Sean Wilentz, Alan Brinkley, Annette Gordon-Reed, Jean Strouse, Frances FitzGerald, and others. Entertaining and insightful individually, taken together the essays address the enduring ingredients of leadership, the focus of an introduction by Walter Isaacson.

Franco-Americans brought their proud cultural legacy to Lewiston-Auburn beginning in the mid-nineteenth century. As their population grew, religious leaders became community leaders, building an independent parish and a support system, as well as providing child care. The Sisters of Charity cared for the sick and orphaned and ran the first bilingual school in Maine. Franco-Americans grappled with their own questions of patriotism, identity and culture, assimilating as Americans while preserving both their French and French Canadian backgrounds. Authors Mary Rice-DeFosse and James Myall explore the challenges, accomplishments and enduring bonds of the Franco-Americans in Lewiston-Auburn.

Now in a celebratory fiftieth anniversary edition, The German Cookbook is the definitive authority on German cuisine, from delicious soups and entrees to breads, desserts, and the greatest baking specialties in the world. In addition to easy-to-follow recipes, renowned food writer Mimi Sheraton also includes recommendations for restaurants at home and abroad, as well as tips on ordering traditional fare. Historically, German influence on the American diet, from hamburgers and frankfurters to jelly doughnuts and cakes, has been enormous. But, as the author writes in a brand-new Preface, “Americans have begun to realize that Austrian and German cooks have long been adept at preparing foods that are newly fashionable here, whether for reasons of health, seasonality, economy or just pure pleasure.” Many standards foreshadowed the precepts of new cooking, such as pickling, and combining sweet with savory. Alongside old Bavarian favorites, The German Cookbook includes recipes for nose-to-tail pork, wild game, and organ meats; hearty root vegetables and the entire cabbage family; main-course soups and one-pot meals; whole-grain country breads and luscious chocolate confections; and lesser-known dishes worthy of rediscovery, particularly the elegant seafood of Hamburg. Since Mimi Sheraton first began her research more than fifty years ago, she has traveled extensively throughout Germany, returning with one authentic recipe after another to test in her own kitchen. Today, The German Cookbook is a classic in its field, a testament to a lifetime of spectacular meals and gustatory dedication. So Prosit and gut essen: cheers and good eating!

For many people, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia evokes images of deserts, camels, and oil, along with rich sheikh in white robes, oppressed women in black veils, and terrorists. But when Loring Danforth traveled through the country in 2012, he found a world much more complex and inspiring than he could have ever imagined. With vivid descriptions and moving personal narratives, Danforth takes us across the Kingdom, from the headquarters of Saudi Aramco, the country’s national oil company on the Persian Gulf, to the centuries-old city of Jeddah on the Red Sea coast with its population of undocumented immigrants from all over the Muslim world. He presents detailed portraits of a young woman jailed for protesting the ban on women driving, a Sufi scholar encouraging Muslims and Christians to struggle together with love to know God, and an artist citing the Quran and using metal gears and chains to celebrate the diversity of the pilgrims who come to Mecca. Crossing the Kingdom paints a lucid portrait of contemporary Saudi culture and the lives of individuals, who like us all grapple with modernity at the dawn of the twenty-first century.