Russell Shorto

A history of the Dutch role in the establishment of Manhattan discusses the rivalry between England and the Dutch Republic, focusing on the power struggle between Holland governor Peter Stuyvesant and politician Adriaen van der Donck that shaped New York's culture and social freedoms. Reprint. 50,000 first printing.

The Epic Story Of Dutch Manhattan And The Forgotten Colony That Shaped America

The Island At The Center Of The World

A historical portrait of the Netherlands capital and the ideas that make it unique explores the ongoing efforts of its citizens to navigate its seaside challenges and democratic philosophies, revealing how the liberal ideals that evolved there throughout time have had a profound influence and are being compromised in today's world.

A History of the World's Most Liberal City

Amsterdam

The best-selling author of The Island at the Center of the World chronicles the more than three-hundred-year debate between religion and science as revealed through the long and momentous odyssey of the skeletal remains of French philosopher René Descartes, creator of the famous phrase "I think, therefore I am." 75,000 first printing.

A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason

Descartes' Bones

Family secrets emerge as a best-selling author dives into the history of the mob in small-town America.

A Story of My Family and the Mob

Smalltime

At a time when America's founding principles are being debated as never before, Russell Shorto looks back to the era in which those principles were forged. In Revolution Song, Shorto weaves the lives of six people into a seamless narrative that casts fresh light on the range of experience in colonial America on the cusp of revolution. The result is a brilliant defense of American values with a compelling message: the American Revolution is still being fought today, and its ideals are worth defending.

The Story of America's Founding in Six Remarkable Lives

Revolution Song

Revolution Song: A Story of American Freedom

Manhattan: la historia secreta de Nueva York

De auteur toont waarom de vrijheid vandaag de dag nog steeds moet worden bevochten en dat de idealen van de Amerikaanse Revolutie dat waard zijn.

Geschiedenis van de Amerikaanse Vrijheid

Lied der Revolutie

wie die Stadt der Städte entstand

New York - Insel in der Mitte der Welt

One of Newsweek's Most Highly Anticipated New Books of 2021 Family secrets emerge as a best-selling author dives into the history of the mob in small-town America. Best-selling author Russell Shorto, praised for his incisive works of narrative history, never thought to write about his own past. He grew up knowing his grandfather and namesake was a small-town mob boss but maintained an unspoken family vow of silence. Then an elderly relative prodded: You’re a writer—what are you gonna do about the story? Smalltime is a mob story straight out of central casting—but with a difference, for the small-town mob, which stretched from Schenectady to Fresno, is a mostly unknown world. The location is the brawny postwar factory town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The setting is City Cigar, a storefront next to City Hall, behind which Russ and his brother-in-law, “Little Joe,” operate a gambling empire and effectively run the town. Smalltime is a riveting American immigrant story that travels back to Risorgimento Sicily, to the ancient, dusty, hill-town home of Antonino Sciotto, the author’s great-grandfather, who leaves his wife and children in grinding poverty for a new life—and wife—in a Pennsylvania mining town. It’s a tale of Italian Americans living in squalor and prejudice, and of the rise of Russ, who, like thousands of other young men, created a copy of the American establishment that excluded him. Smalltime draws an intimate portrait of a mobster and his wife, sudden riches, and the toll a lawless life takes on one family. But Smalltime is something more. The author enlists his ailing father—Tony, the mobster’s son—as his partner in the search for their troubled patriarch. As secrets are revealed and Tony’s health deteriorates, the book become an urgent and intimate exploration of three generations of the American immigrant experience. Moving, wryly funny, and richly detailed, Smalltime is an irresistible memoir by a masterful writer of historical narrative.

Smalltime: A Story of My Family and the Mob

A biography of the President who led the country through the stormy years of the Civil War.

To Preserve the Union

Abraham Lincoln

Sixteen years after René Descartes' death in Stockholm in 1650, a pious French ambassador exhumed the remains of the controversial philosopher to transport them back to Paris. Thus began a 350-year saga that saw Descartes' bones traverse a continent, passing between kings, philosophers, poets, and painters. But as Russell Shorto shows in this deeply engaging book, Descartes' bones also played a role in some of the most momentous episodes in history, which are also part of the philosopher's metaphorical remains: the birth of science, the rise of democracy, and the earliest debates between reason and faith. Descartes' Bones is a flesh-and-blood story about the battle between religion and rationalism that rages to this day.

A Skeletal History of the Conflict between Faith and Reason

Pater familias van Russell Shorto is de fantastische geschiedenis van zijn familie – The Sopranos in het Amerika van de jaren vijftig en zestig. Pater familias van Russell Shorto is het verhaal van zijn familie en de gangsters. In Johnstown, Pennsylvania, bouwden ‘Little Joe’ Regino en Russ Shorto een gokimperium op, met de inkomsten van de arme lokale fabrieksarbeiders als inleg. Bij dit illustere duo konden de gokkers weddenschappen afsluiten op een paard, flipperspel of ‘tip seal’. Voor hen was er geen betere kans om hun American dream te zien uitkomen. Decennia later wordt Russell Shorto aangespoord om het verhaal van zijn familie op te schrijven. Het enige wat hij weet is dat zijn grootvader een gangster was, en dat binnen zijn familie de stilzwijgende afspraak gold dat er niet over hem gesproken werd. In Pater familias gaat Russell Shorto op zoek naar de man naar wie hij vernoemd is. Hij duikt in de wereld van de maffia in het kleine stadje Johnstown. Het levert een meeslepend verhaal op, dat persoonlijk wordt op het moment dat Russells zieke vader besluit zijn partner te worden bij het reconstrueren van het getroebleerde verleden van hun beider stamvader. Pater familias is een ontroerende, grappige en onweerstaanbare biografie en een interessante geschiedenis van de jaren vijftig en zestig ineen, geschreven door een meesterverteller. ‘Russell Shorto’s Pater familias geeft een overtuigend beeld van een tijd waarin Italiaanse Amerikanen niet in bepaalde buurten mochten wonen of al te succesvol mochten worden. Dit aandenken aan het leven van zijn grootvader – de tijd van speelautomaten en flipperkasten, van plekken als de Melodee Lounge en City Cigar – vermengt grootse geschiedenis met mooie, blijvende herinneringen: “Lange gesprekken over spaghettisaus, en tantes die je op je mond zoenden: in die zin waren we Italiaans”.’ – Francis Ford Coppola ‘Een prachtige mix van grootse geschiedenis en mooie herinneringen.’ – Francis Ford Coppola

Het verhaal van mijn familie en de gangsters

Pater familias

Traces the life of the English writer responsible for creating the legendary realm of Middle Earth in his "Lord of the Rings" books.

Russell Shorto

About

Books

Join the club