A heavily pregnant African woman is abandoned on an Indonesian island by Sir Francis Drake. A Mauritanian diver is despatched to salvage lost treasures from the Mary Rose... Miranda Kaufmann reveals the absorbing stories of some of the Africans who lived free in Tudor England. From long-forgotten records, remarkable characters emerge. They were baptised, married and buried by the Church of England. They were paid wages like any other Tudors. Their stories, brought viscerally to life by Kaufmann, provide unprecedented insights into how Africans came to be in Tudor England, what they did there and how they were treated. A ground-breaking, seminal work, Black Tudors challenges the accepted narrative that racial slavery was all but inevitable and forces us to re-examine the seventeenth century to determine what caused perceptions to change so radically.

    In 24 enthralling lectures, Professor Miller guides you through a core selection of the major books of the Old Testament, inviting you to probe their meaning and relevance in incisive and thought-provoking commentary. Among the books of the Old Testament, you’ll explore:• Genesis: Uncover fascinating features of the Old Testament’s opening, such as how the events of the first week of creation form an elaborate pattern, expressing the complex order of the universe; and how the text does not lay primary blame for “the fall” on the woman, Eve;• Deuteronomistic History: Study the epic history of the people of Israel in the Promised Land; follow the story of the Israelites’ disobedience to God, and its tragic consequences; • The Prophets: Through the dramatic stories of the prophets, take account of the challenges faced by those who sought to actualize God’s plan for humanity; • The Books of Ruth and Esther: Among notable women in the Old Testament, explore two stories of women who are doubly at risk, and who prevail through loyalty, resourcefulness, and integrity; and• Daniel and the Apocalyptic: In the Book of Daniel, encounter the genre of apocalyptic literature - revelation initiated by God - and contemplate the figure of “the Son of Man,” a promised redeemer.Throughout the lectures, Professor Miller offers a wealth of perspectives on how to approach the texts. You’ll assess the role of translation in the understanding of the texts, studying the meanings of key Hebrew words; you’ll also look in depth at the history, dating, and writing of the texts, and you’ll study their literary and linguistic features, noting how they achieve their impact on the reader.In Understanding the Old Testament, you’ll take a revelatory look at this epically impactful document, finding its deeper historical and religious meanings, as well as its sublime literary treasures.

    While many people attribute procrastination to laziness or a lack of drive, our real motivations to push back and delay important activities and decisions are more complicated than personal weakness. The truth is that humans are well-adapted for basic survival, but they are not so great at managing the stresses and expectations of modern life without a little help.If our own minds so often work against us, how can we get things done without the stress and last-minute panic so common in our hectic 21st-century lives? You’ll learn how in Do It Now: Overcoming Procrastination, taught by Fuschia Sirois, PhD. In 10 lectures, Dr. Sirois will help you better understand the way your mind works and how to overcome the bad habits that are holding you back. Using the latest scientific research on procrastination, Dr. Sirois will give you the insight and guidance you need to set and meet goals, manage your time better, design an environment that will help you succeed, and much more.Best of all, Dr. Sirois makes it clear that procrastination is a natural impulse for most people - sometimes, it can even be beneficial. She encourages you not only to work toward better time management but also to get rid of the burden of guilt and internal pressure that so often accompanies this very common behavior. While the tendency to delay the things we need to do is a deep-rooted habit, you will be able to apply and re-apply the strategies and tools you will acquire in this course for the rest of your life.

    Have it powdered or granulated, by the teaspoon or cube, dark brown or light brown, refined or raw. Taste it in a thick slice of birthday cake, a palmful of chocolate candies, or a snifter of dark rum. Whatever the form, whatever the treat - sugar drives us wild like nothing else. It’s lingered on our tongues for millennia and found its way into almost every household in the world. Alas, the history of sugar is far from sweet. Long before it was linked to America’s obesity epidemic, sugar was fueling the dark forces of exploitation, colonization, conquest, and slavery. More than just candy and cake, sugar has drastically altered the diets, cultures, and economies of the modern world. How can we love sugar while having a healthy relationship with its bittersweet history? From the earliest cultivation of sugarcane in Asia, to the brutal conditions on colonial sugar plantations, to the multibillion-dollar industry that dominates our grocery aisles today, The History of Sugar offers you a host of surprising insights into human nature. As historian Kelley Fanto Deetz reveals in her fascinating Audible Original, our relationship to this commodity showcases its incredible capacity to lure, to addict, to transform humans to bow to its sweetness at almost all costs - and still bring us together in moments of undeniably delicious joy and celebration.

    For example, integration of major league and professional sports broke a major color barrier for one of the first times in the early years of the Civil Rights Movement. African American athletes competed in America long before the 20th century—in fact, they even competed during the years of slavery.• Boxer Tom Molineaux, who fought for the entertainment of slave masters, went on to earn his freedom, and then became a professional fighter and trainer• Champion boxer Jack Johnson• High jumper Rose Robinson• Track star and four-time Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens• Baseball legend Jackie Robinson• Decathlon gold-medalist Rafer Johnson• The first female African American Olympians, Tidye Picket and Louise StokesHear how the struggles and triumphs of these and other African American sports stars opened doors for professional players who came to dominate their fields, including Serena Williams and Michael Jordan. Learn about the founding of Black sports leagues during the years of segregation, how the Great Migration reshaped athletics in America, and how African American athletes balanced their athletic success with the everyday reality of racism and became engines of social change. While sports helped level the playing field in many ways, Black athletes still grapple with the legacy of inequality in America today.

    In coming to terms with her decision to publicly out her mother, Gail changed how she looks at race and heritage.

    A murderer, and the most wicked woman in history.She kicked her way into the male spaces of politics and demanded to be recognized as an equal and a leader. For her audacity, she was murdered by her son and reviled by history.She was the sister, niece, wife, and mother of Emperors. She was an Empress in her own right, and she was a nuanced, fearless trail-blazer in the Roman world.The story of Agrippina -- the first Empress of Rome is the story of an empire at its bloody, extravagant, chaotic, ruthless height.

    Heroes are not only brave, but they’re also able to navigate the convoluted corridors of society, and to see through the respectable pretense of others to detect the evil that lies within. So, who better to take on the foggy, crime-ridden streets and strict social mores of Victorian London than the iconic literary detective Sherlock Holmes?In Sherlock Holmes: Beyond the Elementary, you’ll investigate the history behind Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s whip-smart, charismatic detective. James Krasner, a scholar of British Victorian literature, will play the role of “Watson”, as he offers a clearer picture of the imaginative influence Sherlock Holmes has maintained over readers, from the 19th century through today. While you examine the secrets of novels like A Study in Scarlet and The Hound of the Baskervilles and stories like “A Scandal in Bohemia” and “The Final Problem”, you’ll deepen your appreciation of these enduring works. You’ll also gain insights into Holmes’ continued relevance to the social problems we face in our own world.What does the relationship between Holmes and Watson tell us about friendship? Is Sherlock Holmes just a “thinking machine”? How do these adventures lay bare gender dynamics in surprising ways? The answers are far from elementary.

    From Isabella of Castile, and her granddaughter Mary Tudor, to Catherine de Medici, Anne Boleyn, and Elizabeth Tudor, these women wielded enormous power over their territories, shaping the course of European history for over a century. Across boundaries and generations, these royal women were mothers and daughters, mentors and protégées, allies and enemies. For the first time, Europe saw a sisterhood of queens who would not be equaled until modern times. A fascinating group biography and a thrilling political epic, Game of Queens explores the lives of some of the most beloved (and reviled) queens in history.

    The first lady appeared one day unannounced, behind the wheel of her car, her secretary and a Secret Service agent her passengers. To Murray, then aged twenty-three, Roosevelt’s self-assurance was a symbol of women’s independence, a symbol that endured throughout Murray’s life.Five years later, Pauli Murray, a twenty-eight-year-old aspiring writer, wrote a letter to Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt protesting racial segregation in the South. The president’s staff forwarded Murray’s letter to the federal Office of Education. The first lady wrote back.Murray’s letter was prompted by a speech the president had given at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, praising the school for its commitment to social progress. Pauli Murray had been denied admission to the Chapel Hill graduate school because of her race.She wrote in her letter of 1938: Does it mean that Negro students in the South will be allowed to sit down with white students and study a problem which is fundamental and mutual to both groups? Does it mean that the University of North Carolina is ready to open its doors to Negro students . . . ? Or does it mean, that everything you said has no meaning for us as Negroes, that again we are to be set aside and passed over . . . ?Eleanor Roosevelt wrote to Murray: I have read the copy of the letter you sent me and I understand perfectly, but great changes come slowly . . . The South is changing, but don’t push too fast. So began a friendship between Pauli Murray (poet, intellectual rebel, principal strategist in the fight to preserve Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, cofounder of the National Organization for Women, and the first African American female Episcopal priest) and Eleanor Roosevelt (first lady of the United States, later first chair of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, and chair of the President’s Commission on the Status of Women) that would last for a quarter of a century.Drawing on letters, journals, diaries, published and unpublished manuscripts, and interviews, Patricia Bell-Scott gives us the first close-up portrait of this evolving friendship and how it was sustained over time, what each gave to the other, and how their friendship changed the cause of American social justice.

    Norwich presents such popes as Innocent I, who in the fifth century successfully negotiated with Alaric the Goth, an invader civil authorities could not defeat; Leo I, who two decades later tamed (and perhaps paid off) Attila the Hun; the infamous “pornocracy”—the five libertines who were descendants or lovers of Marozia, debauched daughter of one of Rome’s most powerful families; Pope Paul III, “the greatest pontiff of the sixteenth century,” who reinterpreted the Church’s teaching and discipline; John XXIII, who in five short years starting in 1958 instituted reforms that led to Vatican II; and Benedict XVI, who is coping with today’s global priest sex scandal.

    Anne Lister was a Regency landowner, an intrepid world traveller ... and an unabashed lover of other women. In this bold new biography, prizewinning author Angela Steidele uses the diaries to create a portrait of Anne Lister as we've never seen her before: a woman in some ways very much of her time and in others far ahead of it. Anne Lister recorded everything from the most intimate details of her numerous liaisons through to her plans to make her fortune by exploiting the coal seams under her family estate in Halifax and her reaction to the Peterloo massacre. She conducted a love life of labyrinthine complexity, all while searching for a girlfriend who could provide her with both financial security and true love.Anne Lister's rich and unconventional life is now the subject of the major BBC TV drama series Gentleman Jack.

    Historian Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers draws on a variety of sources to show that slave-owning women were sophisticated economic actors who directly engaged in and benefited from the South’s slave market. Because women typically inherited more slaves than land, enslaved people were often their primary source of wealth. Not only did white women often refuse to cede ownership of their slaves to their husbands, they employed management techniques that were as effective and brutal as those used by slave-owning men. White women actively participated in the slave market, profited from it, and used it for economic and social empowerment. By examining the economically entangled lives of enslaved people and slave-owning women, Jones-Rogers presents a narrative that forces us to rethink the economics and social conventions of slaveholding America.

    Fewer records were kept, leaving an often-empty legacy to historians attempting to understand the age.But modern archaeology has begun to unearth an increasing number of clues to this once-lost era. And as historians have joined them to sift through those clues—including evidence of a vast arc of Viking trade reaching from Scandinavia to Asia—new light has begun to fall across those once "dark" ages and their fascinating personalities and events.

    This ancient civilization prospered in the region of modern-day Tuscany, maintaining extensive trade networks, building impressive fortified cities, making exquisite art, and creating a culture that, while deeply connected to the Greeks and Romans, had striking contrasts.