Everyday heroes and heroines – ordinary men, women, and children who are honored for actual or imagined feats – have received only scant attention in heroism scholarship. While scholars have devoted thousands of pages to war heroes, heroic leaders, a...

The typical town springs up around a natural resource – a river, an ocean, an exceptionally deep harbor – or in proximity to a larger, already thriving town. Not so with "new towns", which are created by decree rather than out of necessity and are of...

Alexander the Great is probably the most famous ruler of antiquity, and his spectacular conquests are recounted often in books and films. But what of his father, Philip II, who united Macedonia, created the best army in the world at the time, and con...