Collection: Adult

A vivid history of witches from the explosion of trials under King James VI to the end of the witch-hunting phenomenon in the early 1700s.

Witches--whether broomstick-riding spell-casters or Wiccan earth-worshippers--have been culturally relevant for centuries. For centuries, too, belief in the potency of witchcraft has been debated; accused witches have been hunted and punished; and film productions have brought the witch and the witch-hunter to the heights of popular culture.

But where did our perception of witches--good and bad--come from? What motivated wide-scale panics about witchcraft during certain periods? How were alleged witches identified, accused, and variously tortured and punished?

Steven Veerapen traces witches, witchcraft, and witch-hunters from the explosion of mass-trials under King James VI and I in the late sixteenth century to the death of the witch-hunting phenomenon in the early eighteenth century. Based on documents and the latest historical research, he explores what motivated widespread belief in demonic witchcraft throughout Britain and Europe, what caused mass panics about alleged witches, and what led, ultimately, to the relegation of the witch--and the witch-hunter--to the realm of fantasy and the fringes of society.

A panoramic view of the cosmos must begin with the tension of a single political moment. In Quantum History, Slavoj Zizek brings together Hegelian dialectics, Lacan psychoanalysis and quantum mechanics to rethink history, reality and political possibility.

Taking up Lenin's challenge to radically reconsider materialism in the wake of each big scientific discovery, and rejecting the recent vogue for giving a vague spiritualist spin to wave mechanics, Zizek embraces the philosophical implications of quantum mechanics with characteristic erudition and verve. Drawing on the central themes of the holographic universe, non-commutativity and the collapse of superpositions, Zizek evolves a quantum-inspired ontology which reinvents the historical materialism of Hegel and Heidegger - and compels a brutal, often darkly funny, inquisition into the chances of radical emancipatory acts today.

Quantum History takes the reader from the absolute contradiction of the primordial void through quantum oscillations to our ordinary reality, weaving in Lacan and Deleuze, Rovelli and Schelling, opera, cinema, sex and war. Zizek is at his sharpest, saddest, most provocative best as he demonstrates that there is no way of extracting ourselves from the texture of history, no neutral position from which the workings of the world can be observed transparently - we must act from a contingent, complex and inscrutable political moment, in sadness and in doubt, but defiantly.

From the fringes, the unknown beckons. Pathfinder Dark Archive (Remastered) contains secrets that any player or GM can use to reveal the paranormal lurking in their Pathfinder games, all updated to work perfectly with the remastered Pathfinder Second Edition rules! This spine-tinglingly secretive 224-page rulebook presents two new character classes perfect for delving into the unexplained: Unleash the untold power of your mind as the psychic or leverage supernatural secrets and mystic implements as the thaumaturge!

Beyond these new classes, eight secret case files each provide player options, GM tools, and lore into a different paranormal topic, including:

• Strange cryptids glimpsed in the night, gear to track them, and the powers you might gain by surviving an encounter with one.
• Cults and esoteric belief, with apocryphal divine magic and the secret of becoming a living vessel for an eldritch being.
• Temporal anomalies, with archetypes that skim along the surface of time and a new mystery for oracles unbound from causality
• Each file concludes with a short adventure to immerse players in the paranormal, spanning across Golarion--play all eight to uncover the inexplicable phenomena of the Age of Lost Omens!

Pathfinder Dark Archive (Remastered) is the perfect addition to the library of any player or Game Master who wants to add a touch of strangeness and mystery to their Pathfinder campaign.

Essays on imagining a better world in dark times, from one of our most esteemed scholars of fairy tales

Fairy tales take us to a world where magic is commonplace, where wishing works, where the conflicts in our hearts are literalized in the world around us. The living, vibrant, democratic genre of the fairy tale draws stories from people and places all over the globe, and spreads them just as broadly. Yet in a world exhausted by war, famine, climate devastation, and political strife, are these tales still valid? Are they merely an escape, or are they something more? The eminent folklorist Jack Zipes argues here that fairy tales remain relevant and powerful, that they still speak truth to power. Indeed, he writes, we cannot do without them.

In this collection of essays on such beloved tales as "Hansel and Gretel" and "Puss in Boots"; on the authors L. Frank Baum, E. T. A. Hoffmann, and the Brothers Grimm; and on the dubious influence of Disney, Zipes introduces readers to the history of the fairy tale and explores why the stories retain such a fierce hold on our imagination. He argues vigorously for the fighting utopian spirit the tales uphold--something our world sorely needs.

The surprising two-hundred-year history of diversity in education, commerce, and science from the scholar the New Yorker dubbed America's "diversity detective"

As a war on diversity upends government, corporate, and education policies, the history of the idea of diversity has never been more important. In this contrarian book, David B. Oppenheimer, a diversity skeptic turned admirer, chronicles how diversity became a foundational value of higher education over the last two hundred years, how it evolved as it was adopted in commerce and science, and the implications of the current backlash.

The diversity principle--the idea that people with different backgrounds, experiences, identities, and viewpoints produce better work by engaging with one another--was a core tenet of the first modern research university, founded in Germany in 1810. It was the inspiration for John Stuart Mill's On Liberty, a touchstone of academic freedom; a hallmark of Charles Eliot's remaking of Harvard in the late nineteenth century to promote the "clash of ideas"; and a foundation of the twentieth century efforts toward equality of Thurgood Marshall, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Pauli Murray. In telling the story of the diversity principle through the experiences of these and other remarkable thinkers, Oppenheimer argues for affirming diversity as a central value of education and an essential ingredient for a robust intellectual and political culture.

A wide-ranging new history of the Baltic Crusades and their legacy

Between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, crusading armies unleashed a relentless holy war against the last pagan societies in northern Europe, particularly in the Baltic Sea region. Led by Catholic rulers, churchmen, and, most importantly of all, the warrior monks of the Teutonic Order, they sought to expand Christendom through conquest and conversion. In the process they forged a new world with a profound legacy that resonates into the present.

Aleksander Pluskowski traces the broader story of the Baltic Crusades. Pluskowski explores how the construction of castles and towns, and the introduction of new languages, technology, monetary economies, and religion transformed the conquered societies. Moving through the years, we see how the history of the crusades was reinvented in the twentieth century to serve nationalist aims, including those of the Third Reich. This is a fascinating study that provides a fresh look at the impact of centuries of religious warfare across northern Europe.

An incisive and engaging account of post-Soviet Russia--showing how and why the country has come into confrontation with the West

The escalation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 triggered the most violent conflict seen on European soil for decades. Millions of people have been displaced, and thousands killed. As the conflict continues, many in the West are seeking to understand why Putin has followed his ambitions to such extreme ends.

James Rodgers examines the development of Russia's relationship with the West from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 to the present day. Rodgers argues that, while Putin has long distrusted the West, Western policies have made the situation much worse. He shows that Putin's political career, with its transformations from supportive ally to implacable critic of the West, has been the defining influence on Russia's place in the contemporary world.

Following the invasion of Ukraine, the West needs to develop a new understanding of Russia's views and possible actions--rather than simply ignoring them, as has been the case since the end of the Cold War.

A portrait of the Athenian politician and general Themistocles, tracing his political development, his victory at the Battle of Salamis, and his exile in Persia

"Excellent. . . . A superb introduction to the life of Themistocles and the foundations of democracy."--David Gibbins, Wall Street Journal

Themistocles (524-459 BC) came of age just as a newly democratic and empowered Athens was emerging. He would become an instrumental political and military figure, fighting in the Battle of Marathon; persuading Athenians to expand their fleet; and engineering the Athenians' defeat of the Persians at the Battle of Salamis. However, as Michael Scott demonstrates in this biography, Themistocles failed as much as he succeeded.

Scott offers a fully human picture of Themistocles, a man who could be both decisive and heroic as well as uncertain and unprepared. He was loved and hated in Athens, his plans and ideas ignored as often as they were respected. Eventually he was exiled as a traitor, ultimately settling in Persia as an adviser to Artaxerxes, the son of Xerxes, his foe at Salamis. And yet, in the aftermath of his death, he emerged as one of Greece's historical heroes.

In this portrait of a man Thucydides deemed one of the most illustrious Greeks of his time, Scott reveals one man's struggle to navigate the turbulent world of Athenian politics, and the crucial role of historians and biographers in shaping, and distorting, the image of Themistocles that has come down to us through the centuries.

An elegant biography of a prescient author whose novels portray Black women's experiences across the African diaspora

Growing up in World War II-era Brooklyn among West Indian immigrants, Paule Marshall (1929-2019) was fiercely driven to become a writer, making art from the world she knew, the life she lived, and the world she imagined. Though her novels and stories are understood by scholars as the beginning of contemporary Black feminist literature--bridging Harlem Renaissance writers like Zora Neale Hurston to such writers as Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Maya Angelou--Marshall's legacy is often overlooked. In this elegant literary biography, distinguished scholar of African American literature Mary Helen Washington draws on exclusive access to the writer's papers, including her newly discovered unpublished memoir, and scores of interviews with family and friends to give us the first account of Marshall's life as an artist and of the depth and brilliance of her work.

Beginning with her 1959 debut, Brown Girl, Brownstones, a coming-of-age story set among Barbadian immigrants and African Americans in Brooklyn, and moving through her later works set in the Caribbean, Africa, and the United States, Marshall's novels chart the diasporic life that Marshall herself lived, defined by Black women's experiences, an unapologetic and sometimes queer sexuality, and the history of the African diaspora. Despite the lush and finely observed inner lives of her heroines, however, Marshall was famous for tightly guarding her own privacy, and it is this enigma--Marshall's deeply expressive writing versus her guarded public exterior--that Washington draws out. Here is the first look at a prescient, brilliantly talented writer, a complex and fascinating woman, whose fiction single-handedly stages a reverse middle passage that extends from the United States and the Caribbean to Africa.

A thrilling new adventure based on the acclaimed TV series Star Trek: Picard!

2401: Just weeks after defeating a devastating joint attack by rogue Changelings and remnants of the Borg Collective, Starfleet and the Federation face a long period of recovery that requires replacing lost personnel and ships. While touring the U.S.S. Titan-A, which is just beginning an extensive repair-and-refit process that will take nearly a year to complete, newly promoted Captain Seven of Nine and her first officer, Commander Raffi Musiker, experience a bizarre temporal event which renders them both unconscious and sends Seven into a deep coma.

In the aftermath of this inexplicable attack, Admirals Jean-Luc Picard and Beverly Crusher are surprised by the appearance of Crusher's son, Wesley. Now a Traveler capable of traversing through all of space and time, he warns them that forces he cannot identify are working to disrupt time for unknown and potentially catastrophic reasons. Reality as they know it is in jeopardy and, despite their initial best efforts, the effects are not contained but instead continue to escalate.

Picard, Crusher, and Musiker join Wesley in hunting through time to stop whoever or whatever seems hellbent on rewriting history. But what is their unknown adversary's ultimate objective? Left unchecked, their efforts might well erase from existence those Picard and his friends hold most dear. What could justify attempting to defy fate itself?

*** PRE-ORDER THE FINAL EPIC IN THE NERO TRIOLOGY ***

The throne is never safe ... especially in Rome

AD 60. Rome stands at the height of its power - glittering with wealth, drowning in intrigue.

On Palatine Hill, Nero Claudius Caesar rules as Emperor, a young man adored for his beauty and brilliance, feared for his temper, intoxicated by his own power. His empire stretches from the wilds of Britain to the deserts of Parthia, yet his enemies are never far: generals who command legions, senators who whisper in corridors, a people who cheer him in the circus but curse him on the streets.

Nero has learned that power is never shared, only seized. He has seen off enemies before, not least his mother, Agrippina. Yet now Boudicca, queen of the Iceni, leads a revolt in the North. Closer to home, Gaius Julius Vindex, Roman by office but Gallic by blood, denounces Nero's corruption and declares open rebellion against the Emperor from Gaul.

Rome is a city that devours its rulers. As the first sparks of revolt alight beyond its walls, an empire built on fire begins to burn from within . . .

IN ONE L.A. MOTEL ROOM, A COSMIC QUEST IS ABOUT TO BEGIN . . .

More than just a writer, more than just a science-fiction icon, Benjamin J. Carp was a cultural revolutionary. Over the course of 44 novels and hundreds of short stories--including the counterculture classic The Man They Couldn't Erase--Carp pushed the boundaries of literary respectability for the sci-fi genre and his readers' perception of reality itself . . . until decades of amphetamine abuse and Southern California excess finally ended a mind-bending career that always just escaped mainstream success. He died in 1982.

Until 2025 . . . when Benjamin J. Carp awakens, alive, in a burned-out motel on the fringes of Los Angeles. He remembers dying. He knows he shouldn't exist. Is he a dream? A robot? A ghost? A clone? A simulation? In his own time, Carp pondered all of these scenarios through his fiction--and now, as he treks from Studio City to Venice Beach and onward into the paranoid sprawl of 21st-century Los Angeles, he will be called to investigate his greatest mystery yet: himself.

From Edgar Award nominee and Philip K. Dick Award winner Ben H. Winters (EC's Cruel Universe, The Last Policeman trilogy) and rising star Leomacs (EC's Epitaphs from the Abyss, Ghostlore) comes a uniquely fascinating and hilariously deranged excursion into the metatextual nexus where existence and oblivion, past and future, genius and madness, and glitter and grim reality all meet just beyond Hollywood Boulevard.

A multigenerational tale of the heroic Joestar family and their never-ending battle against evil!

The legendary Shonen Jump series is now available in deluxe hardcover editions featuring color pages! JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is a groundbreaking manga famous for its outlandish characters, wild humor, and frenetic battles.

In the midst of the fifth stage of the cross-country Steel Ball Run race, Gyro and Johnny make a break for Lake Michigan when they are suddenly attacked by another Stand user! With their very lives on the line, Gyro and Johnny must learn how to stretch their abilities beyond their limits in order to avoid losing absolutely everything.

A marvelously illustrated look at bats from around the world

The only mammals capable of flight, bats are found on every major continent on the planet. They perform crucial roles in the ecosystems they inhabit, from consuming insect pests over agricultural crops and forests to pollinating night-flowering plants, dispersing seeds in tropical biomes, and recycling nutrients and creating natural fertilizer. Many of the world's 1,400 species are threatened or endangered due to habitat destruction, climate change, and persecution arising from harmful myths. This beautifully illustrated guide demystifies these fascinating creatures, blending the latest science with fact-filled profiles of representative species, from the tiny bumblebee bat to the imposing giant golden crowned flying fox. A must for bat lovers everywhere, Bats of the World showcases the extraordinary diversity of this incredible group of animals.

• Features a wealth of stunning color photos and engaging infographics
• Shares invaluable insights into the anatomy, evolution, and behavior of bats and their cultural and ecological importance
• Profiles bats from every family, detailing their unique features, distribution, numbers, conservation status, and habitat
• Written by leading experts in bat ecology and conservation