History

Originally named Juan Fernandez, the island of Robinson Crusoe in the South Pacific was the inspiration for Defoe's classic novel about the adventures of a shipwrecked sailor. Yet the complex...

The Duke of Wellington's victory over Napoleon in 1815 at Waterloo ensured British dominance for the rest of the nineteenth century. It took three days and two hours for word...

'An eccentric life, wonderfully told. Lady Anne Barnard was a brave traveller, artist and observer. Stephen Taylor brings her brilliantly out of the shadows.' Stella TillyardLady Anne Barnard lived at...

"A truly welcome and refreshing study that puts earthquake impact on history into a proper perspective" --Amos Nur, Emeritus Professor of Geophysics, Stanford University, California, and author of Apocalypse: Earthquakes,...

This original and fun large-format book contains illustrations of over 300 colourful costumes and accessories from through the ages and all around the world. The book is organized by theme...

This classic study gives the archaeologist's view of one of the most important periods of European history, describing how, out of the Dark Ages, the Greeks set their sails north,...

Roman Britain was created not by impersonal historical forces, but by men and women, each driven by ambition, aspiration and passion. A fresh, fast-moving account, this book explores the narrative...

When Homeward Bound first appeared in 1988, it forever changed the way we understand Cold War America. Previously, scholars understood the post-World War II era as a time when Americans...

'A carefully researched and hugely readable account of the build-up to war, the momentum inexorably growing as he assembles each part of the jigsaw. Indeed, his narrative is so persuasive...

On the afternoon of 8 April 1802, in the remote southern ocean, two explorers had a remarkable chance encounter. Englishman Matthew Flinders and Frenchman Nicolas Baudin had been sent by...

The First World War is often viewed as a war fought by armies of millions living and fighting in trenches, aided by brutal machinery that cost the lives of many....

One of the revelations of William Shawcross's official biography of the Queen Mother was her private correspondence. Indeed the Sunday Times described her letters as 'wonderful ... brimful of liveliness...

From the survivor of ten Nazi concentration camps who went on to become the City of Boston's Director of Education and created the New England Holocaust Memorial, a wise and...

World War II changed the course of history. Douglas MacArthur changed the course of World War II. MACARTHUR AT WAR will go deeper into this transformative period of his life...

A leading expert examines one of Napoleon's most decisive but least analysed victoriesIn early July 1809 Napoleon crossed the Danube with 187,000 men to confront the Austrian Archduke Charles and...

The greatest conflict of antiquity, the struggle for supremacy between Rome and Carthage.The struggle between Rome and Carthage in the Punic Wars was arguably the greatest and most desperate conflict...

A comprehensive account of the most audacious bombing raid of the Second World War.Operation Chastise - the Dambusters Raid, as it became known - undertaken by 19 Lancasters of 617...

This first-ever biography of William Beckford provides a unique look at eighteenth-century British history from the perspective of the colonies. Even in his own time, Beckford was seen as a...

An unconventional view of the First World War from inside the glittering social salon of Downing Street: a story of unrequited love, loss, sacrifice, scandal and the Prime Minister's wife,...

"Your country Needs You!" was the poster slogan that shouted out to many during the First World War. And indeed, it did. As men of all ages joined the Forces...

The RAF's Battle of Britain Memorial Flight comprises three main aircraft - the Spitfire, the Lancaster and the Hurricane. The Lancaster played no part in the Battle of Britain and...

"Your country Needs YOU!" was the poster slogan that shouted out to many during the First World War. And indeed, it did. As men of all ages joined the Forces...

In Civil War, Peter Ackroyd continues his dazzling account of England's history, beginning with the progress south of the Scottish king, James VI, who on the death of Elizabeth I...

The Churchills dominated world politics for generations - but, like every family, they too have their secrets. Winston's mother, Jennie, had an affair with the Prince of Wales, later King...

* Haydon's first attempt at suicide ended when the low calibre bullet fired from his pistol fractured his skull but failed to penetrate his brain. * His second attempt also...

"I am most grateful for two things: that I was born in North Korea, and that I escaped from North Korea." - Yeonmi Park"One of the most harrowing stories I...

1922. The spectacular year that F. Scott Fitzgerald chose as a backdrop for his most famous novel The Great Gatsby. It was also the year where James Joyce's Ulysses and...

Shortlisted for the 2013 Samuel Johnson Prize, the Thwaites Wainwright Prize and the 2014 Dolman Travel Book AwardThis is a book about the encounter with Roman Britain: about what the...

THE FIRST MEMOIR BY A USS ARIZONA SURVIVOR: Donald Stratton, one of the battleship's five living heroes, delivers an "epic,"* "powerful,"** and "intimate"** eyewitness account of Pearl Harbor and his...

The Sunday Times bestseller 'An utterly engrossing book' Nigella Lawson 'Remarkable and gripping' Edmund de Waal 'A near-perfect study of Jewish identity in the 20th century ... I don't hesitate...

The story of young German Jews who escaped the Nazis, most often without their families, only to return a few years later to war-torn Europe as members of an elite...

`Moving - at times almost unbearably so - and fascinating' Antonia Fraser A family's story of human tenacity, faith and a race for survival in the face of unspeakable horror...

Henry Stuart's life is the last great forgotten Jacobean tale. Shadowed by the gravity of the Thirty Years' War and the huge changes taking place across Europe in seventeenth-century society,...