New Releases by Richard Winston

The “aged queen of French cathedrals,” Victor Hugo called Notre-Dame. And ancient it was – nearly 700 years had passed since the Bishop Maurice de Sully decided that Paris needed a cathedral worthy of France’s capital. “Every face, every stone of the venerable monument,” Hugo continued, “is a page not only of the history of the country but also of the history of science and art.” Here, National Book Award Winner Richard Winston tells the dramatic story of the building of the great cathedral and the history that was made there – from the marriage of Mary Queen of Scots to the crowning of Napoleon to Charles de Gaulle’s celebration of the liberation of Paris from the Nazis.

Hagia Sophia is more than 1,400 years old. It was a Christian Church, then a Muslim mosque, and is now a museum. Here, from National Book Award winner Richard Winston, is the extraordinary story of one of the world''s great architectural treasures and its everchanging role in the history of Constantinople.

Goths, Huns, and Vandals: Were they savages who broke down the gates of the civilized world? Or was their notoriety the result of bad press? Here in this essay, National Book Award winner Richard Winston provides the answers.

Here, National Book Award winner Richard Winston explores life in the Middle Ages - from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries, beginning with the fall of the Roman Empire and ending with the dawn of the Renaissance. In both countryside and cities, from the peasants to the bourgeoisie to the nobility, no aspect of life in this era is left unexplored.

From his father, Charlemagne inherited only a part of the Frankish kingdom - little more than half of modern France and the Low Countries. Before his astonishing career had ended, he had conquered half of Europe and his armies had marched through Italy, Germany, and Spain. In a glittering Christmas Day ceremony in Rome, in the year 800, he was crowned the new Holy Roman Emperor. More than the heroic conqueror of Western Europe, Charlemagne was an intense and thoughtful human being. His succession of five wives brought him a palace full of children. So warm was his love for his daughters that he could never bear to see them married away from the court, even though enticing alliances with other rulers were offered them. A deeply religious man, Charlemagne became the protector of orthodox Christianity against medieval heresies. A patron of learning, he established schools and brought artists and scholars to his court to work and study. As a result, most classical literature comes down to us in copies of books made in Charlemagne''s time. Here, from National Book Award winner Richard Winston, is his remarkable story.

This fictionalized story drawn from personal experience, involves a day in the life of a Chief Medical Officer(CMO) at a United States Government Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS). Having long ago forsaken Armani for a more comfortable "senior citizen" fit, this aging lion with gruff exterior and matching disposition, the sine qua non of a life full spent, is constantly challenged by the frenzy of a modern day bureaucracy. Still, however, there emanates from within him a true and tested underlying goodness bonded to, yet conflicted with, a stubborn and uncompromising integrity. As he interfaces with today''s brash and eager youth, they awaken in him not only his nurturing side, but to his cautious delight, envious glimpses of sweet youth that once was his. To his credit or not, what you see is what you get. There is no more and there certainly is no apology.

This is a new release of the original 1955 edition.

Experiments for controls classes like MIT''s 2.004 require large lab setups and expensive equipment such as oscilloscopes and function generators. We developed a series of controls experiments based on National Instruments'' myDAQ platform. These experiments, which are small enough to fit on a single PCB board and weigh less than a pound, allow students to work on controls labs at their own pace wherever they please, increasing the ease of learning. We designed and prototyped a double integrator experiment and a DC motor experiment. We implemented the control software in NI LabView, and we have produced accompanying documentation. We will make the circuit layouts, controller software, and lab documentation available to the public through the NI myDAQ website. Other schools will be able to use our designs in their courses.

Suddenly I saw a pale gray shape dart in front of my car. At first I thought it was just a large dog, thin and long-legged. Trapped between the high wall on the left and the unbroken row of parked cars to the right, the animal ran at a relaxed canter directly down the center of the road a few feet in front of me. I slowed even more. The beast was caught in the headlights and I saw it was no neighborhood pooch out for a midnight stroll. It was a coyote and it was hunting.

John Capablanca finds himself in Tokyo in 1948 with the rank of Major and a slot on MacArthurs staff as Chief of CID (Criminal Investigation Detachment). Capablanca is an ex-NYPD homicide detective and he finds himself in the position of overseeing the operations of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police as they endure the transition of "democratization". Capablancas old boss, Lewis J. Valentine, former NYC Police Commisioner, is on his way to Japan to instruct them in the fine art of democratic police work. Meanwhile and old and wealthy ex-baron has been murdered in a ritualistic crime with political resonances that echo all the way from Sugamo prison to the Emperors palace.

In Vietnam, while the air and land war grinds bloodily on, a few miles off shore in the South China Sea the fleet oiler USS Michigamme, AO 108, steams up and down the coast in operation Market Time. From Yankee Station in the north, deep in the Gulf of Tonkin, to Dixie Station in the Gulf of Siam far to the south, the men of Michigamme fight boredom, a corrupt system, and each other as they refuel (or in naval parlance, unrep) what ever ships of the U.S. Seventh Fleet they encounter that require it, from tiny wood-hulled MSO minesweepers doing solitary interdiction duty off the Mekong Delta to the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Enterprise, CVA 65, and her taskforce engaged in bombing Haiphong harbor. When her own bunkers run dry, Michigamme returns to the POL pier in Subic Bay, P.I. to put a Tiger in her tank and let the men have a little R & R in the fleshpots of Olongapo. On one such occasion she picks up a new man, a brigrat just out of incarceration on Guam for going AWOL. His name is Gus Rounds. We follow Rounds as he is introduced to his new ship and his new shipmates. He quickly earns the wrath of his future nemesis, Ted Holiday, BM1. But he is be-friended by Tick Peterson, PN2 in the Ships Office and cut some slack by Master Chief Gunnersmate Tom MacBriar. Captain Childress is aboard Michigamme, deep in the belly of ServPac, the wretched Service Fleet Pacific, and the bottom of the barrel as far as command status goes, for one reason only. Her draft. Fully laden she draws 48 feet of water, about the same as an aircraft carrier. Childress is a WWII flyboy hero who knows nothing about ships and is bucking for a carrier command, but to get it he needs some deep draft experience on his resume.Fortunately for Childress, his second in command, Executive Officer Jim Barden, is a competent seaman and navigator and he sees to all the actual details of the ships day to day performance. While Rounds is part of Deck Force we meet his fellow deckapes Red Dog, Tony Land, John Basham, and Denny Van Horn BM2, Holidays right hand man. We also meet Tim Case, ET3, Gary Middleshore, PN striker and many other members of Michigamme 212-man crew.With a little encouragement and Peterson greasing the wheels, Rounds gets out from under Holidays thumb on deck force and is allowed to;strike for gunner. After Tom MacBriars suicide, the Gunnery Department of Michigamme consists of Deke Buckles, GM2, Joe Cruz, GM3, and Rounds, seaman striker. Until BuPers in Washington can send a replacement for Chief MacBriar, Buckles is in charge of the gundecks. He and Holiday are at war. Holiday is also at war with Peterson over money Holiday owes to the illegal slush fund Peterson operates with Corpsman Jerry Steinberg. Then the an unknown officer steals Deke Buckles Filipina girlfriend, Trudy, and Buckles goes berserk, starting a riot in Olongapo and a war between Michigamme and Oklahoma City, flagship of Com7thFleet. Later he finds out that the officer is Captain Childress of the Michigamme, and the seeds to a mutiny are sown. First the Okie City, as she is known, is doused with black oil from stem to stern when Buckles and the rest of the gundeckers conspire with some snipes in Engineering to send the flagship a charged hose thus torpedoing Captain Childress career. But Buckles is killed in a helicopter accident and it falls on Gus Rounds to plot the Michigamme Mutiny. When push finally comes to shove its in a raging typhoon off the coast of Japan. Joe Cruz and Gus Rounds make their move and the gundeckers seize command of the ship by force. But by then the real question is whose ship is it anyway?

Discusses life in France in the Middle Ages.

An illustrated history of the Gothic cathedral which has figured in important events for eight hundred years.