The story of beer in San Francisco is as old as the city itself. San Francisco had its first commercial brewery by 1847, two years before the gold rush, and went on to reign as the major brewing center in the American West through the nineteenth century. From the 1930s to the early 1950s, iconic San Francisco-based breweries Lucky and Acme owned the statewide California market. In the 1960s, Fritz Maytag transformed San Francisco's tiny and primitive...

Join author Bill Yenne on a whirlwind tour of the world of beer! After a quick stop to learn about the anatomy of beer, including ingredients, styles, and even museums, Beer: The Ultimate World Tour will take you to all the regions of the world. Inside, you will find maps, charts, illustrations, and photographs showcasing favorite brews of the areas! Featuring beer from regions like: Belgium, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Great Britain & Ireland,...

When the Oracle of Delphi told Alexander the Great that he was invincible, it was right. The son of the great King Philip II of Macedonia, Alexander was educated by Aristotle and commanded a wing of his father's army in the victory over the Thebans and Athenians at the Battle of Chaeronea-all when he was still just a teenager. By the time of his death at age 32, he had amassed an empire that stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River and...

The B-52 is the longest serving and most versatile of the United States Air Force's combat aircraft. The Stratofortress entered active service in 1955 and is scheduled to continue as part of the air force's inventory through 2040. The jet-powered bomber was a mainstay of America's Cold War nuclear-deterrent strategy, providing air power that balanced the land and sea military forces. The massive plane also served as the launch platform for the experimental...

Glacier National Park is a majestic million acres of towering mountains, ancient glaciers, and amazing biodiversity. Located astride both the Continental Divide and Hudson Bay Divide, Glacier contains Triple Divide Peak, the only point in North America from which the waters drain into three oceans. The land that George Bird Grinnell called the "Crown of the Continent" and that John Muir described as "the best care-killing scenery on the continent"...

Named for Jose de Jesus Noe, San Francisco's last Mexican mayor, Noe Valley is undoubtedly one of San Francisco's favorite neighborhoods and certainly one of the most picturesque. Yet the area has a rich and varied history reaching far beyond the lovely buildings and lively street scenes familiar to so many citydwellers. Originally part of the Rancho de San Miguel land grant, the area was incorporated into the city and became an early example of a...

"Area 51's most important military aviation developments are profiled in an illustrated format. When most of us think of Area 51, we think of aliens, UFOs, and controversial government cover-ups. It's easy to forget that, since the mid-1950s, the United States' famed extension of Edwards Air Force Base has served as a top-secret CIA testing ground for many of the most groundbreaking advancements in American military aviation technology. In Area 51...

Few industrial phenomena have been as dramatic as the United States' mid-20th-century shift from peacetime to wartime production. The American Aircraft Factory in World War II documents the production of legendary warbirds by companies like Boeing, North American, Curtiss, Consolidated, Douglas, Grumman, and Lockheed. It was a production unmatched by any other country anda crucial part of why the allies won the war. Author Bill Yenne considers the...

At the heart of the evil of Nazism was Hitler's "witch doctor," Heinrich Himmler, and his peculiar and deadly organization with the mundane name Schutzstaffel, literally "protective squadron." Undoubtedly you know them better as the feared SS, the very essence of Nazism. Their threatening double lightning bolt is perhaps the most dreaded symbol of the Third Reich. The facts of the SS's origins are truly stranger than fiction. If you thought Raiders...

"The aftershocks of the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor were felt keenly all over America-the war in Europe had hit home. But nowhere was American life more immediately disrupted than on the West Coast, where people lived in certain fear of more Japanese attacks. From that day until the end of the war, a dizzying mix of battle preparedness and rampant paranoia swept the states. Japanese immigrants were herded into internment camps. Factories...