History

For centuries following the fall of Rome, Western Europe was backward and benighted, locked into the Dark Ages and barely able to tell the time of day. Arab culture, however,...

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...

A TLS AND PROSPECT BOOK OF THE YEARThe scintillating story of the Russian aristocrats, artists, and intellectuals who sought refuge in interwar Paris.The fall of the Romanov dynasty in 1917...

As the call for a new understanding of our national history gets louder, this book turns the received imperial story of Britain on its head. Britain's Empire recounts the long...

'Magnificent. Narrative history at its vivid and compelling best' Fergal KeaneThe first major history of the International Brigades: a tale of blood, ideals and tragedy in the fight against fascism.The...

This volume brings together 25 defining texts in global history. These pieces cover approaches to the subject from antiquity to the present century and, taken together, show the development of...

The Age of Reform - the hundred years from 1820 to 1920 - has become synonymous with innovation and change but this period was also in many ways a deeply...

The period since the First World War has been a century distinguished by the loss of any unitary foundation for truth, ethics, and the legitimate authority of law. With the...

The period of the Enlightenment was marked by innovation in political, cultural, religious, and educational ideas with the aim of improving the experience of human beings in society. Key to...

The Enlightenment was a time of monetary turmoil and transformation in Europe. Change began with a riot of experimentation, including novel ideas about human agency and capacity to promote economic...

The nineteenth century was a time of intense monetization of social life: increasingly money became the only means of access to goods and services, especially in the new metropolises; new...

In a time before large banking systems, and with paper money just in its infancy, money during the Renaissance meant coinage (mainly gold and silver) and local credit systems. These...

Opened up by the revival of Classical thought but driven by the violence of the Reformation and Counter Reformation, the terrain of Early Modern law was constantly shifting. The age...

In 500, the legal order in Europe was structured around ancient customs, social practices and feudal values. By 1500, the effects of demographic change, new methods of farming and economic...

Money provides a unique and illuminating perspective on the Middle Ages. In much of medieval Europe the central meaning of money was a prescribed unit of precious metal but in...

How should we talk about "the law" in a period so remote from our own and covering such a huge span of time and space? From the Code of Hammurabi...

Bracketed by global financial crises and economic downturns, the modern age has been defined by debates about, and transformations of, money. The period witnessed the consolidation of national currencies and...

The origins of the modern, Western concept of money can be traced back to the earliest electrum coins that were produced in Asia Minor in the seventh century BCE. While...

It is an often ignored but fundamental fact that in the Ottoman world, as in most empires, there were 'first-class' and 'second class' subjects. Among the townspeople, peasants and nomads...

In this definitive account of the Peninsular War (1808-14), Napoleon's six-year war against Spain, Ronald Fraser examines what led to the emperor's devastating defeat against the popular opposition - the...

Humanists have been a major force in British life since the turn of the 20th century. Here, leading historians of religious non-belief Callum Brown, David Nash, and Charlie Lynch examine...

This is the first book to examine the history of the country in a way that connects global processes to local developments. Taking account of social, political and economic dynamics...

The Colonial World: A History of European Empires, 1780s to the Present provides the most authoritative, in-depth overview on European imperialism available. It synthesizes recent developments in the study of...

The innovative city culture of Florence was the crucible within which Renaissance ideas first caught fire. With its soaring cathedral dome and its classically-inspired palaces and piazzas, it is perhaps...

Esteemed Pacific War historian Jeffrey Cox has produced a fast-paced and absorbing read of the crucial New Georgia phase of the Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign during the Pacific War.Thousands of miles from...

Throughout the Second World War, a wide range of people, including political leaders and government officials, experts and armchair internationalists, civil society groups and private citizens talked about and formulated...

There are few subjects these days that cause parents more stress than the education of their children.In his new book, Peter Hitchens describes the misjudgements made by politicians over the...

This book reproduces the original 1937 founding pamphlet of Mass-Observation - the compelling social research project that ran for decades in the mid-20th century - with expert commentary throughout. It...

The decisive role of Britain's wartime newspaper journalism in shaping public opinion and government policy has been majorly overlooked. Much of the existing historiography has framed Britain's newspapers as mouthpieces...

A charming and heartfelt story about war, art, and the lengths a woman will go to find the truth about her family. 'As devourable as a thriller... Incredibly moving' Elle...

The numbers that tell the story of humanity'Vital ... If you're thinking about setting up a giant land empire in Asia, you cannot do so without this book ... If...

'Masterful research, impeccable detail, with a beautifully flowing narrative of which Churchill himself would have been proud.' - Professor Peter Caddick-AdamsFrom his earliest days Winston Churchill was an extreme risk...

This is the OCR-endorsed edition covering the Greek GCSE set text prescriptions examined from 2025 to 2026. The texts covered are:HomerIliad VI, lines 370-413 and 429-502HerodotusSections XIa (First Capture of...

Covering Sparta's full classical history, The Bronze Lie examines the myth of Spartan warrior supremacy.The last stand at Thermopylae made the Spartans legends in their own time, famous for their...

Spanning cultures across the 20th century, this volume explores how marriage, especially in the West, was disestablished as the primary institution organizing social life. In the developing world, the economic,...

This volume looks at how, during the age of empires (1800-1900), marriage was a key transition in the life course worldwide, a rite of passage everywhere with major cultural significance....

Could an institution as sacred and traditional as marriage undergo a revolution? Some people living during the so-called Age of Enlightenment thought so. By marrying for that selfish, personal emotion...

Marriage, across cultures, is often defined as a union between consenting adults that lasts for the life of the partners. But is marriage a blessing, or curse? Does marriage represent...

Why marry? The personal question is timeless. Yet the highly emotional desires of men and women during the period between 1450 and 1650 were also circumscribed by external forces that...

Marriage in Europe became a central pillar of society during the medieval period. Theologians, lawyers, and secular and church leaders agreed on a unique outline of the institution and its...

Gennady Estraikh's book explores the birth, growth, demise and afterlife of the Birobidzhan Jewish Autonomous Region (JAR). The History of Birobidzhan looks at how the shtetl was widely used in...

Appreciating the power of language, and how discriminatory words can have deadly consequences, is pivotal to our understanding of the Holocaust. Engaging with a wealth of primary sources and significant...

Under the Swastika in Nazi Germany begins in flames in 1933 with Adolf Hitler taking power and ends in the ashes of total defeat in 1945. Kristin Semmens tells that...

Soviet Critical Design is the first book to explore the socialist design practice of 'artistic projecteering', which was developed by the USSR's Senezh Experimental Studio in the 1960s.Tom Cubbin examines...

A History of Germany, 1800 to the Present is a commanding survey of modern German history that guides you from the turn of the 19th century right the way through...

The first English-language book to examine the crucial part air power played in the Soviet-Afghan War.The Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan was fought as much in the air as on...

'I was riveted by Sweat and its extraordinary tale of the ups and downs of exercise over millennia' Jane Fonda'Does what all good history books should do: take the past...