The Silk Road played a fundamental role in the transmission of art, religion, and goods, including luxury items such as jewelry, spices, textiles, and horses. The opening of trade between cultures as distant as ancient China and Rome also came with a big cost: disease. The Silk Road examines the establishment of this sweeping trade route, the explorers who opened trade, and the wide-ranging consequences of the more than 1,300 years of history on one...

The Northwest Passage has captured the imagination of nations and explorers for hundreds of years. And today, as global warming reshapes geography, trade along the passage is becoming a reality for the first time. The Northwest Passage provides a sweeping history of the route from the earliest attempts to navigate through its punishing landscape to breaking news about its economic viability in modern day.