"The City of Nets," as Brecht called Berlin, before the deluge, and people who created and those who destroyed it.

    Among them are his most famous works, Knight, Death and Devil; Melencolia I; and St. Jerome in His Study. Also included are portraits of his contemporaries, including Erasmus of Rotterdam and Frederick the Wise, as well as six engravings formerly attributed to Dürer.

    In return for the finest cooking in the land and the wages of a minor prophet, Ethan must write a proper record, full of glory and battles, statecraft and honor--a tribute to David and, of course, to Solomon, his heir. But as Ethan explores the story, he finds another life hidden behind the iron curtain dividing past from present: the story of a David who seduced, lied, bragged, and plundered his way to power. Ethan wonders: which life should be reported in the King David Report? Written by one of Germany's most acclaimed dissident authors, The King David Report is both an analysis of the writer's obligations to truth, and an astute satire on the workings of history and politics in a totalitarian state.

    Complex in plot, the novel permits a more traditional reading than many of Schmidt's works. The year is 2014 in Tellingstedt near the Danish border. The city is now a reservation in which the few German survivors of the atomic war exist, overseen by the United States. A "story within a story/play within a play," the wonder of this book lies not only in its plot but in its intricacy of allusion and references to Jules Verne and Shakespeare.Arno Schmidt is the author of Radio Dialogues, Volumes 1 and 2.

    To Americans he is usually portrayed as "bad King George," that oppressive tyrant named in the Declaration of Independence as "unfit to be the ruler of a free people."Was George bad or mad? Author John Brooke avoids the hearsay of history because of his access to all the King's papers which were never used in their entirety by previous biographers. In addition, Brooke inherited the complete papers of Sir Lewis Namier, whose researches into this period are unquestionably the most valuable of our century. Tracing George's life through notebooks, diaries, and accounts, Brooke provides a very personal biography of George III, rather than a history of his reign.Was George bad? George founded the Royal Academy, was a patron of the great astronomer Herschel, and paid out of his own pocket for every book now in the King's Library of the British Museum. He was one of Britain's most devoted and best-informed rulers, fond of country life and his family.Was George mad? Not insane at all, George was grievously afflicted with porphyria--a painful illness caused by a rare metabolic imbalance. His doctors did not understand his malady and their treatment was arbitrary, irrelevant, and cruel. It was enough to reduce any victim to fury and despair and insured that the last years of the King's life were miserable and largely empty.The early death of his father made George his grandfather's unexpected heir, and when he came to the throe in 1760 at twenty-two, younger than any monarch since Edward VI, nothing in his education had prepared him for his new responsibilities. Brooke shows the torment this brought him, inexperienced and naïve, "trapped between Pitt who coveted power for a purpose and Bute who oscillated between the wish for power and the fear of responsibility, with Newcastle flitting between them. . . ." Somewhat of a rarity among English rulers, George had a long and happy marriage marred at the end by the queen's imposed separation from him to protect her form his alleged madness.Of all that has been written about George, Brooke's King George III is the first to show him as a human being with likes and dislikes, penchants and perversities and to dispel the ludicrous caricature that has made up the myth.George III was the last king of England who ruled as well as reigned. Because he was a very personal monarch whose own decisions and conduct affected public policy as no British monarch's have since, this biography provides us with new light on the causes and conduct of the American Revolution.

    Following the battle of Pavia, Pope Clement VII joined the French-led League of Cognac to resist the threatened Habsburg domination of Europe. Emperor Charles V appealed to the German diet for support and raised an army, which entered Italy in 1527 and joined the imperial forces from Milan, commanded by the duke of Bourbon. This army marched on Rome, hoping to detach the pope from the league. The many Lutherans in its ranks boasted that they came with hemp halters to hang the cardinals and a silk one for the pope. Rome fell on 6 May 1527, Bourbon being killed in the first assault. Discipline collapsed, and the city was savagely pillaged for a week before some control was restored. Judith Hook's book is a classic narrative history of these events and one of the first to appear in English.

    171 Days: A Fragment of AutobiographyBattleCounterattack Inside the Third ReichInterrogation Germany from a boxcarOflag 350 milesLager HammelburgDeceptive freedomA walking tour of Bavaria in the SpringtimeIn the U.S. Army againPsrt 2. A quarter century later: reflection & explorationConscience & history The mystic chords of memory Five patriots The instrumental meaning of warThe expressive meaning of war The quest of a kingdomAn Informal Glossary

    Otto became an international lawyer and diplomat, serving during the early thirties as Consul General in New York. He died by hanging in Berlin in 1944 as a resister to the Nazi regime. 'He is a mirror of the first half of this century,' says the author, 'showing the best of its hopes, the clearest of its thinking, the brightest and darkest of its days.'A fascinating look at a little known hero.