The late Fleischman's final gift to readers is a captivating and balanced portrait of film legend Chaplin, which celebrates his successes without glossing over his failings. Packed with period photographs, it's a biography that's as entertaining as it is informative—but who would expect any less from Fleisch-man?

Freedman's hard-hitting account of WWI skirts none of the conflict's brutality, as major advancements in weaponry produced a war the likes of which the world had never seen. Photographs and quotations from combatants drive home the atrocities and the war's ramifications for future generations.

A powerful study of the development of the Ku Klux Klan, from its formation to the present day, Bartoletti's accessible and chilling work makes use of letters and other writings of some of the group's founders, as well as her own firsthand research, including a visit to a Klan gathering. A searing examination of fear, hate, violence, and an organization that, despite progress, persists to this day.