Portugal is a small Western European nation with a large, distinctive past replete with both triumph and tragedy. One of the continent's oldest nation-states, Portugal has frontiers that are essentially unchanged since the late 14th century. The country's unique character and 850-year history as an independent state present several curious paradoxes. As of 1974, when much of the remainder of the Portuguese overseas empire was decolonized, Portuguese...

Unique among historical guides to New York City, this book covers separate waves of immigration from colonial times to the mid-nineteenth-century Irish Potato Famine, from Ellis Island-which, between 1892 and 1954, processed some twelve million newcomers-to the present day, and it ties this history to various sites in the city. Timeline Books These one-of-a-kind guides allow readers to move through time as never before, bringing them face to face...

Vietnam became part of French Indochina in 1887 and did not regain its independence again until after the Vietnam War. However, despite a relatively peaceful two decades the country experienced little economic growth because of conservative leadership policies. In an effort to change this stagnation, Vietnamese authorities have committed to economic liberalization and enacted structural reforms needed to modernize the economy and to produce more competitive,...

Governors Island is a 172-acre park just 800 yards from Manhattan. It was a military base for 200 years and only opened to the public in 2004. Today it draws 500,000 visitors a season. This insightful guidebook is for any visitor to the island: a bicyclist who just wants to enjoy five miles of car-free biking, the Civil War enthusiast that wants to visit Castle Williams and see where 1,000 Confederate soldiers were imprisoned, or families on a picnic....