ANDREWS MCMEEL
From Abba to Zoom: A Pop Culture Encyclopedia of the Late 20th Century (May, $14.95) by David Mansour features icons and events such as Farrah Fawcett and Woodstock, with 3,000 alphabetical entries. 75,000 first printing.
BBC BOOKS (dist. by Trafalgar Square)
Pompeii: The Last Day (Mar., $16.99) by Paul Wilkinson pieces together the events of a summer's day in A.D. 79; a companion to the January Discovery Channel series.
BEACON PRESS
Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age (Apr., $16) by Marcus Rediker finds a surprising democratic and multiethnic society.
A City in Terror: Calvin Coolidge and the 1919 Boston Police Strike (May, $14) by Francis Russell recounts the police strike that put Calvin Coolidge in the White House.
BEAR & CO.
Forbidden History: Extraterrestrial Intervention, Prehistoric Technologies, and the Suppressed Origins of Civilization (May, $18), edited by Doug Kenyon, challenges scientific theories on the establishment of civilization and technology.
BIRLINN (dist. by Interlink)
After the Hector: The Scottish Pioneers of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton 1733—1852 (Apr., $17.95) by Lucille H. Campey documents one of the greatest early migrations of Scots to North America.
Scotland's Roman Remains (May, $16.95) by Lawrence Keppie covers the Roman occupation of northern Britain.
B&w publishing (dist. by Interlink)
Times Past: The Story of Glasgow (June, $15) by Russell Leadbetter offers a pictorial history.
CHECKMARK BOOKS
The Clinton Years by Shirley Anne Warshaw and
The Reagan Years (May, $21.95 each) by Stephen Knott provide perspectives of each presidency in an alphabetical format.
CITADEL
Freemasons: Inside the World's Oldest Secret Society (Mar., $14.95) by H. Paul Jeffers looks at the underground society that inspired The Da Vinci Code.
The Raging Sea: The Heroic Story of America's Worst Tidal Wave (Apr., $15.95) by Dennis M. Powers details the events of Good Friday, 1964, when a tsunami hit Crescent City, Calif.
CYPRESS HOUSE
Destroyers on the Rocks: Seven Ships Lost (Mar., $17.95) by Spencer Duckworth investigates the greatest disaster in U.S. naval history. Ad/promo.
IVAN R. DEE
Why Not Every Man?: African Americans and Civil Disobedience in the Quest for the Dream (May, $14.95) by George and Willene Hendrick chronicles the use of civil disobedience by African-Americans to improve their plight.
DOWN EAST BOOKS
Bygone Backwoods: An Antique Postcard Tour (May, $12.95) by Earl Brechlin annotates antique postcards relating to outdoor recreation in New England around the turn of the last century.
WM. B. EERDMANS
The Birth of Christianity: The First Twenty Years (Apr., $15) by Paul Barnett details the time and setting in which the church was born.
FALCON PUBLISHING
Hearts West: True Confessions of Mail Order Brides on the Frontier (June, $13.95) by Chris Enss and JoAnn Chartier includes 12 stories of mail order brides and their exploits.
HARVARD UNIV. PRESS
Ruling America: A History of Wealth and Power in a Democracy (Apr., $18.95), edited by Steve Fraser and Gary Gerstle, offers a history of America's ruling elite from the Revolution to the present.
INNER TRADITIONS
The Secret History of Freemasonry: Its Origins and the Connection to the Knights Templar (June, $16.95) by Paul Naudon traces the history from ancient Rome to the present.
MERCER UNIV. PRESS
Frederick Douglass: A Precursor of Liberation Theology (Mar., $22) by Reginald F. Davis examines the evolution of Douglass's philosophical and theological development.
Handling Serpents: Pastor Jimmy Morrow's Narrative History of His Appalachian Jesus' Name Tradition (Mar., $19) by Jimmy Morrow, edited by Ralph W. Hood Jr. A pastor and serpent handler for over a quarter of a century explores this tradition's history.
MOUNTAIN PRESS
Bleed, Blister, and Purge: A History of Medicine on the American Frontier (Apr., $15) by Volney Steele, M.D., covers a range of early medical practices from barroom surgery to modern hospital operations.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC BOOKS
The Last Voyage of Captain Cook: With Ledyard's Selected Letters and Siberian Journal (Mar., $16) by John Ledyard collects the memoirs of an 18th-century explorer.
NORTON/PEACE HILL PRESS
The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, Volume 4: The Modern Age: From Victoria's Empire to the End of the U.S.S.R. (Mar., $16.95) by Susan Wise Bauer is the history of modern nations from 1850 to 2000.
PENGUIN
A Treasury of Deception: Liars, Misleaders, Hoodwinkers, and the Extraordinary True Stories of History's Greatest Hoaxes, Fakes, and Frauds (June, $14) by Michael Farquhar gathers the greatest deceptions of all time, organized by theme. 100,000 first printing.
POCKET BOOKS
The Great Escape from Stalag Luft III: The Full Story of How 76 Allied Officers Carried Out World War II's Most Remarkable Mass Escape (Aug., $14) by Tim Carroll describes how officers evaded capture after a breakout from Hermann Göring's "escape-proof" prisoner-of-war camp.
POCKET/PARAVIEW
Body Snatchers in the Desert (June, $14) by Nick Redfern reveals a post-WWII program using the bodies of crippled and deformed adults and children in biological and nuclear experiments.
PINEAPPLE PRESS
Florida History from the Highways (Mar., $18.95) by Doug Waitley gives background on some of Florida's most interesting sights and cities just off of highways and interstates.
QUIRK BOOKS
Secret Lives of the First Ladies (July, $16.95) by Cormac O'Brien features outrageous and uncensored profiles of all the presidents' wives.
RIO NUEVO PUBLISHERS
The Wicked West: Boozers, Cruisers, Gamblers and More (June, $15.95) by Sherry Monahan tells stories by those who lived it. Author tour.
SOUVENIR PRESS (dist. by IPG)
The Secret of the Spear: The Mystery of the Spear of Longinus (Apr., $14.95) by Alec Maclellan traces the journey of the spear used to pierce the side of Jesus on the cross almost two millennia ago.
TEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIV. PRESS
The Ancient Southwest and Other Dispatches from a Cruel Frontier (Mar., $14.95) by Michael H. Price and George E. Turner collects educational cartoons from the Amarillo Globe-News published in the 1950s on the prehistory of the Palo Duro Canyon.
TEXAS A&M UNIV. PRESS
A Polish Son in the Motherland: An American's Journey Home (May, $35) by Leonard Kniffel recounts the author's search for his roots and why ties were severed more than 50 years earlier.
THUNDER'S MOUTH PRESS
Man with Farm Seeks Woman with Tractor: Three Centuries of Captivating Personal Ads (May, $13.95) by Laura Schaefer collects samples of personal ads from 1727 to the present.
TRANSACTION
Canadians and Americans: Myths and Literary Traditions (Mar., $29.95) by Katherine L. Morrison compares the historical, political and sociological backgrounds of Canada and the United States to dispel the misconception of our sameness.
UNIV. OF NORTH TEXAS PRESS
The Alamo (Mar., $24.95) by Frank Thompson recounts the battle that has come to symbolize courage and sacrifice for the cause of liberty.
UNIV. OF TEXAS PRESS
Mexican Americans and World War II (Mar., $19.95), edited by Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, celebrates the overlooked contributions of the more than 750,000 Mexican-American veterans who were part of the "Greatest Generation."
VISION/FUSION (dist. by IPG)
Secret History: Hidden Forces That Shaped the Past (Apr., $17.95) by Joel Levy studies the many clandestine plots in history from ancient Rome to the current war on terror.
WALL STREET JOURNAL BOOKS
Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and Worst in the White House (June, $15), edited by James Taranto and Leonard Lee, covers all 43 presidents, from Washington through George W. Bush. Ad/promo.