Returning to the turbulent days of a nation divided, best-selling author and acclaimed historian James Robertson explores 70 fascinating figures who shaped America during Reconstruction and beyond. Relentless politicians, intrepid fighters, cunning innovators—the times called for bold moves, and this resilient generation would not disappoint. From William Tecumseh Sherman, a fierce leader who would revolutionize modern warfare, to Thomas Nast, whose undefeatable weapon was his stirring cartoons, these are the people who weathered the turmoil to see a nation reborn. Following these extraordinary legends from the battle lines to the White House, from budding metropolises to the wooly west, we re-discover the foundation of this great country.

A critical success on both sides of the Atlantic, this darkly imaginative novel from Scottish author James Robertson takes a tantalizing trip into the spiritual by way of a haunting paranormal mystery. When Reverend Gideon Mack, a good minister despite his atheism, tumbles into a deep ravine called the Black Jaws, he is presumed dead. Three days later, however, he emerges bruised but alive-and insistent that his rescuer was Satan himself. Against the background of an incredulous world, Mack's disturbing odyssey and the tortuous life that led to it create a mesmerizing meditation on faith, mortality, and the power of the unknown.

Michael Curtiz (1888-1962) was without doubt one of the most important directors in film history, yet he has never been granted his deserved recognition and no full-scale work on him has previously been published. The Casablanca Man surveys Curtiz' unequalled mastery over a variety of genres which included biography, comedy, horror, melodrama, musicals, swashbucklers and westerns, and looks at his relationship with the Hollywood studio moguls on the basis of unprecedented archive research at Warner Brothers. Concentrating on Curtiz' best-known films - Casablanca, Angels With Dirty Faces, Mildred Pearce and Captain Blood among them - Robertson explores Curtiz' practical creative struggles and his friendships and rivalries with other film celebrities including Errol Flynn, Bette Davis and James Cagney, and his discovery of future stars. Casablanca Man is the first comprehensive critical exploration of Curtiz' entire career and, linking his European work and his subsequent American work into a coherent whole, Robertson firmly re-establishes Curtiz' true standing in the history of cinema.

The beginning of the Christian Church is reckoned from the great day on which the Holy Ghost came down, according as our Lord had promised to His Apostles. At that time, "Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven," were gathered together at Jerusalem, to keep the Feast of Pentecost (or Feast of Weeks), which was one of the three holy seasons at which God required His people to appear before Him in the place which He had chosen...

"Who am I? I am Gideon Mack, time-server, charlatan, hypocrite, God's grovelling apologist; the man who saw the stone, the man that was drowned and that the waters gave back, the mad minister who met with the Devil and lived to tell the tale" Gideon Mack, an errant Church of Scotland minister, doesn't believe in God, the Devil or an afterlife. From the moment he discovers a mysterious standing stone, his life unravels dramatically until he is swept into a river and carried through a deep chasm underground. Miraculously, Mack emerges three days later, battered but alive. He seems, however, to have lost his mind, since he claims to have been rescued and restored to the world by the Devil. Mixing fantasy, legend and history with a wealth of insight about religion, belief and culture, The Testament of Gideon Mack is an ambitious, mesmerizing novel that combines superlative storytelling with immense imaginative power.

Spiritualism: The Open Door to the Unseen Universe, Being Thirty Years of Personal Observation and Experience concerning Intercourse between the Material and Spiritual Worlds, offers a unique insider¿s perspective on the growing Spiritualist movement in Scotland and England from the late Victorian era through to the dawn of the 20th century. Originally published in The Two Worlds magazine over the course of 30 years, Scottish author James Robertson and editor J.J. Morse compiled these essays into a single volume in 1908. Filled with first-hand accounts of sittings, séances and experiences with some of the most recognized practitioners of the era, the book includes chapters on notable Spiritualists such as the English poet and Egyptologist Gerald Massey and Scottish mediums Alexander and David Duguid. Robertson describes in detail the activities and meetings of the still-extant Glasgow Association of Spiritualists. He also thoughtfully and thoroughly discusses topics such as the religion and literature of Spiritualism, Spiritualist organizations and periodicals of the era, and phenomena such as automatic writing and spirit photography. This Classic Reprint edition has been newly typeset for ease of reading.