History Books 96 results

V.s. Naipaul

At the centre of this extraordinary historical narrative are two linked themes: the grinding down of the aborigines during the long rivalries of the quest for El Dorado, the mythical kingdom of gold; and, two hundred years later, the man-made horror of the new slave colony. In The Loss of El Dorado, V. S. Naipaul shows how the alchemic delusion of El Dorado drew the small isla...

Max Siollun

'Incredibly necessary, magnificently done, Siollun charts the characters and events that shaped the lives of those who inhabited Nigeria's territories centuries before colonisation' - Remi Adekoya, author of It's Not About Whiteness, It's About Wealth'Without a doubt, Max Siollun is the best Nigeria-focused historian of our times' - Matthew T. Page, former U.S. State Department...

Justin Marozzi

**SHORTLISTED FOR 2025 THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION** A startling exploration of slavery in the Islamic world from the 7th century to the present Slavery in the Islamic world has a long, diverse and controversial history. Captives and Companions is a brilliant synthesis of history and contemporary reportage that brings to life the voices of the enslaved in stories ...

Annie Jacobsen

In this engrossing and deeply disturbing exposé from the bestselling author of Nuclear War: A Scenario, Annie Jacobsen tells the gripping story of a decades-long, covert project to bring Hitler's scientists and their families to the United States. In the chaos following the Second World War, the US government faced a critical decision: what to do with the great scientific mind...

Adam Lebor

Budapest, autumn 1943. Four years into the war, Hungary is allied with Nazi Germany and the Hungarian capital is the Casablanca of central Europe. The city swirls with intrigue and betrayal, home to spies and agents of every kind. But Budapest remains at peace, an oasis in the midst of war where Allied POWs, and Polish and Jewish refugees find sanctuary. The riverside cafes are...

Harry Sidebottom

Bestselling author Harry Sidebottom takes readers on a thrilling journey through a day in the life of the most iconic figure of the ancient world: the Roman gladiator 'Wonderfully panoramic ... endlessly informative, rich with unexpected detail but never heavy to read' Literary Review 'Grippingly original' Tom Holland, Sunday Times bestselling author of Dominion 'Thrilling......

Patricia Tarrant. Roman

Six unique women - One common goal.The troubled lives of six Spanish women coincide, collide and intersect. Pedro and Maria are trapped in a loveless marriage, unable to divorce because of the teachings of the catholic church. Pedro meets Rosa, a naïve girl half his age, falls in love and builds her a home. But their world is doomed from the start. Pedro cannot sustain two hous...

Jonathan Dimbleby

A gripping and authoritative account of the year that sealed the fate of the Nazis, from the bestselling historian June 1944: In Operation Bagration, more than two million Red Army soldiers, facing 500,000 German soldiers, finally avenged their defeat in Operation Barbarossa in 1941. The same month saw the Allies triumph on the beaches of Normandy, but, despite the myths that ...

Luke Kemp

A radical retelling of human history through collapse - from the dawn of our species to the urgent existential threats of the twenty-first century and beyond. 'A brilliant, utterly convincing account of the evolution of human society and why we are probably reaching humanity's end days' HENRY MARSH 'Absolutely essential reading for understanding why past civilisations collaps...

Tim Bouverie

A Sunday Times bestselling landmark history of the alliance that won the war and made the peace from the author of Appeasing Hitler 'An astonishing achievement. Compellingly told, immensely wide-ranging and utterly fascinating'JAMES HOLLAND 'The best book I have ever read about the politics of the Second World War' TIM SHIPMAN After the fall of France in June 1940, only Brit...

Kathleen Duval

WINNER OF THE 2025 PULITZER PRIZE FOR HISTORY WINNER OF THE 2024 CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE Winner of the Bancroft Prize 2025 Winner of the Mark Lynton History Prize 2025 For centuries, Europeans assumed that indigenous Americans lacked the sophistication to build cities and establish hierarchies. For over a millennium, prior to and after the arrival of white colonialists, however, ...

Jack Weatherford

"Astonishing...Brings to life a thriving - and rather civilized - empire" - The Telegraph"sparkles with energy, insight and passion... difficult to put down." Nicholas Morton, BBC History MagazineControl the sea, and you control everything...a gripping tale of dynastic rivalry and innovation, from the author of the classic work Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World.Ge...

Ilan Pappe

An indispensable guide to understanding the Israel-Palestine conflict, and how we might yet still find a way out of it. 'Ilan Pappe is the most original, radical and hard-hitting of Israel's "new historians".' Avi Shlaim, author of Three Worlds The devastation of 7 October 2023 and the horrors that followed astounded the world. But the Israel-Palestine conflict didn't start on ...

Ben Macintyre

'Addictive and deeply moving' Independent 'Utterly gripping' Anthony Beevor, Daily Telegraph 'Enthralling . . . A reminder that heroism can be found in the most unlikely places' Evening Standard 'I have seldom enjoyed a spy story more than this one' Max Hastings, Sunday Times _____________________ D-Day, 6 June 1944, the turning point of the Second World War, was a victory of a...

Eckart Frahm

The first comprehensive account of the rise and fall of what historians consider to be the world's very first empire: Assyria 'A work of remarkable synthesis. The range of its sources is truly extraordinary . . . Frahm punctures a fair share of myths too' Pratinav Anil, The Times At its height in 660 BCE, the kingdom of Assyria stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persi...

Matthew Lewis

New in paperback - The powerful medieval couple who formed an empire beyond England, and whose children included Richard the Lionheart and King John. Henry II became King of England in 1154 after twenty years of civil war. He was the first Plantagenet king, the founder of England's most successful and longest-ruling dynasty. But Henry did not come to the throne alone. He had ...

Jeremy Black

This brilliantly concise history of the Pacific Ocean nevertheless succeeds in examining both the indigenous presence on ocean's islands and Western control or influence over the its islands and shores. There is a particular focus on the period from the 1530s to 1890 with its greater Western coastal and oceanic presence in the Pacific, beginning with the Spanish takeover of the...

Tom Holland

Christianity is the most enduring and influential legacy of the ancient world, and its emergence the single most transformative development in Western history. Even the increasing number in the West today who have abandoned the faith of their forebears, and dismiss all religion as pointless superstition, remain recognisably its heirs. Seen close-up, the division between a scept...

Isabel Wilkerson

'A landmark piece of non-fiction' Janet Maslin, The New York TimesFrom the winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this is one of the great untold stories of American history: the migration of black citizens who fled the south and went north in search of a better life From 1915 to 1970, an exodus of almost six million people would change the face of America. With stunning historical de...

Timothy Venning

Regicide, military dictatorship, war and rumors of war, opposition from all sides and collapse of a 'failed state': such is the story of Oliver Cromwell's unique experiment in the governance of Britain, following the English-British Civil Wars. The British state of the Three Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland were united in the Protectorate, with Cromwell as Lord Protect...

John S. Mchugh

Sejanus is notoriously known as the Tiberius' ambitious and ruthless Praetorian Prefect, widely believed to have craved the throne for himself and is considered the virtual ruler of Rome from AD 26-31.The figure of Sejanus has fascinated from ancient to more modern times. Sejanus, the emperor Tiberius' infamous Praetorian Prefect, is synonymous with overreaching ambition, murde...

Peter Hoskins

Detailed comparison of the conduct of military affairs by the Black Prince and the French King Jean II.What were the essential qualities for a military commander during the Hundred Years War? How important were strategic vision, tactical skill and powers of leadership in medieval warfare? These are the questions that Peter Hoskins explores in this perceptive study of the career...

Paul Chrystal

The importance of war gods and their myths to the Romans and their psyche - their worth as the sons of Mars.This book redresses the relative lack of work published on the role of war in classical myth and legend. At the same time it debunks the popular view that the Romans had little mythology of their own and idly borrowed and adapted Greek myth to suit their own ends. While t...

Tanya Talaga

The world's Indigenous communities are fighting to live and dying too young. In this vital and incisive work, Tanya Talaga explores intergenerational trauma and the alarming rise of youth suicide. From Northern Ontario to Nunavut, Norway, Brazil, Australia, and the United States, the Indigenous experience in colonised nations is startlingly similar and deeply disturbing. It is ...

Michael D. Coe / Javier Urcid / Rex Koontz

Mexico arrives in its eighth edition with a new look and the most recent discoveries. This is the story of the pre-Spanish people of Mexico, who, with their neighbors the Maya, formed some of the most complex societies north of the Andes. Revised and expanded, the book is updated with the latest developments and findings in the field and current terminology. The new edition inc...

Steven Levitsky / Daniel Ziblatt

Two Harvard professors explain the stages in which governments collapse - and how we can prevent thisDemocracies die in three stages: the election of an authoritarian leader, the concentration and abuse of governmental power and finally, the complete repression of opposition and citizens. The first step was taken in the US with the election of Donald Trump; we must all learn ho...

Teresa Cole

1066 saw three kings of England, the last of whom was William, Duke of Normandy. Tradition tells us the conquest of England by the powerful Normans was inescapable, and suggests England benefited almost at once from closer links with Europe. But new discoveries have thrown doubt on these long accepted beliefs. The Battle of Hastings itself must be re-assessed, its very site dis...

Matthew Lewis

King of a lost realm. Wearer of a pawned crown. Heir to an empire beyond reach. From the ashes of Magna Carta, a new England was to be forged. Henry III became King of England within days of his ninth birthday. His father, King John, had overseen a disastrous period in English history and the boy king inherited a country embroiled in a bitter, entrenched war with itself. With b...

Eugene L. Rogan

THE THIRD EDITION OF THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER, REVISED AND UPDATED 'A rich, galloping narrative that spans the Arab world...outstanding, gripping and exuberant...full of flamboyant character sketches, witty asides and magisterial scholarship, that explains much of what we need to know about the world today' Simon Sebag Montefiore 'Anyone who seeks to understand why the Isla...

John Mchugo

Syria's descent into civil war has already claimed an estimated 200,000 lives while more than nine million people have fled their homes. This is now the greatest humanitarian and political crisis of the twenty-first century. In this timely account, John McHugo charts the history of Syria from the First World War to the present and considers why Syria's foundations as a nation h...