Pamela Toler

In the beginning, architecture was synonymous with survival. Early empires built walls to keep enemies out and to define their territory. Inventions including the arch (which was first created by the Romans) and the steel frames that support skyscrapers have elevated architecture to an art form. Inventions in Architecture: From Stone Walls to Solar Panels looks at the innovations responsible for architecture as we know it in the order they were invented....

"Who says women don't go to war? From Vikings and African queens to cross-dressing military doctors and WWII Russian fighter pilots, these are the stories of women for whom battle was not a metaphor. * The woman warrior is always cast as an anomaly--Joan of Arc, not GI Jane. But women, it turns out, have always gone to war. In this fascinating and lively world history, Pamela Toler not only introduces us to women who took up arms, she also shows...

A look at the lives of the real nurses depicted in the PBS show Mercy Street. Heroines of Mercy Street tells the true stories of the nurses at Mansion House, the Alexandria, Virginia, mansion turned war-time hospital and setting for the PBS drama Mercy Street. Among the Union soldiers, doctors, wounded men from both sides, freed slaves, politicians, speculators, and spies who passed through the hospital in the crossroads of the Civil War, were nurses...