George Orwell set out 'to make political writing into an art', and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature. While 1984 and Animal Farm

Reflections on Hanging is a searing indictment of capital punishment, inspired by its author’s own time in the shadow of a firing squad. During the Spanish Ci

Mutiny on the Bounty is one of history's greatest naval stories—yet few know the similar tale from America's own fledgling navy in the dying days of the Age o

It wasn't quite the homecoming ex-privateer Harry Ludlow had anticipated. Having cheated death and made a handsome profit into the bargain, Harry and his brothe

The first historical study—and a riveting account—of the last execution in Michigan. On September 24, 1830, Stephen G. Simmons, a fifty-year-old tavern keep