History

For more than a century successive US and UK governments have sought to thwart nationalist, socialist and pro-democracy movements in the Middle East. Through the Cold War, the 'War on...

Five days before Christmas 1943, a badly damaged American bomber struggled to fly over wartime Germany. At its controls was a twenty-one-year-old pilot. Half his crew lay wounded or dead....

On 24 June 1948 the Soviet Union abruptly closed all land and water access to the Western Sectors of Berlin. Over 2 million civilians, dependent on the surrounding territory and...

Collecting the most incisive and influential writings of one of Rome's finest orators, Cicero's Selected Works is translated with an introduction by Michael Grant in Penguin Classics.Lawyer, philosopher, statesman and...

In this portrait of life in Ancient Rome, the author begins by painting a backcloth on which the social, political, cultural and religious aspects of the community are drawn. He...

A unique and enthralling anthology compiled by WWII flying ace, Laddie Lucas, Voices in the Air tells the story of the air battles of the Second World War in the...

This unique landmark oral history uses first-hand accounts from ordinary men and women who were there. Gripping, poignant, surprising and even humorous, the personal experiences of these soldiers, civilians, marines...

First published 25 years ago, this biography of the Sun King uses contemporary sources to examine what sort of monarch Louis XIV really was. The author's researches reveal a portrait...

Living in the seeming hell of one of the poorest and most crowded quarters of Calcutta are the saints of today: saints such as Mother Teresa, saints such as Stephen...

**THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER** The book that inspired Steven Spielberg's acclaimed TV series, produced by Tom Hanks and starring Damian Lewis. In Band of Brothers, Stephen E. Ambrose pays tribute to...

"[A] surprisingly moving story." -The New Yorker"Bogdanov's novels reveal a great deal about their fascinating author, about his time and, ironically, ours, and about the genre of utopia as well...

'The Penguin History of Europe series ... is one of contemporary publishing's great projects' New StatesmanThe Pursuit of Glory brings to life one of the most extraordinary periods in European...

Gregory Rasputin figures in Russian history as a malign and destructive force, a man with an unhealthy influence on the Empress Alexandra and undue power in Russian politics. Yet, his...

This definitive, multi-volume history of the world's first known state reveals that much of what we have been taught about Ancient Egypt is the product of narrow-minded visions of the...

Here is Ireland's past distilled - poignant personal narratives and privileged moments, human behaviour recorded in its infinite variety, voices overheard: chamber music. In these pages Elizabethan adventurers, fops, soldiers,...

Companion to the major new BBC documentary series CIVILISATIONS, presented by Mary Beard, David Olusoga and Simon SchamaThe idea of 'civilisation' has always been debated, even fought over. At the...

Our age is obsessed by the idea of conspiracy. We see it everywhere - from Pearl Harbour to 9/11, from the assassination of Kennedy to the death of Diana. Bookshop...

The Cold War is one of the furthest-reaching and longest-lasting conflicts in modern history. It spanned the globe - from Greece to China, Hungary to Cuba - and lasted for...

Investigator, interrogator, intellectual hero, biographer Michael Jago traces the life of the remarkable and engaging John Bingham, the man behind John le Carre's George Smiley.The heir to an Irish barony...

The highly eccentric Alfred Dillwyn Knox, known simply as 'Dilly', was one of the leading figures in the British codebreaking successes of the two world wars. During the first, he...

Allegedly the only man capable of holding the Fuhrer's intense gaze, Rothay Reynolds was a leading foreign correspondent between the wars and ran the Daily Mail 's bureau in Berlin...

In the second instalment of his Roosevelt trilogy, Nigel Hamilton tells the astonishing story of FDR's year-long, defining battle with Churchill, as the war raged in Africa and Italy. Commander...

A dramatic, eye-opening account of how FDR took personal charge of the military direction of World War II.Based on years of archival research and interviews with the last surviving Roosevelt...

For Alice Keppel, it was all about appearances. Her precepts were those of the English upper classes: discretion, manners and charm. Nothing else mattered - especially when it came to...

Acclaimed historian Barry Turner presents a new history ofthe Cold War's defining episode.Berlin, 1948 - a divided city in a divided country in adivided Europe. The ruined German capital lay...

The first known inhabitant of St Helena - long beforeNapoleon - was a 16th-century Portuguese renegade.In 1506 Fernao Lopes, a member of his country's minor nobility,travelled to Goa in search...

'Danny Goldberg is probably one of the purest, most reasonableguides you could ask for to 1967.' Ex-Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham. 'Weaves together rollicking, rousing, wonderfully colourful anddisparate narratives...

'Keeps up the suspense to the end.' The Times Literary Supplement'An extraordinary, and largely forgotten wartime story -- brought back to life in this Boys' Own account.' The Daily MailHigh...

Acclaimed historian Barry Turner presents a new history ofthe Cold War's defining episode.Berlin, 1948 - a divided city in a divided country in adivided Europe. The ruined German capital lay...

In the second half of the sixteenth century, most of the Christian states of Western Europe were on the defensive against a Muslim superpower - the Empire of the Ottoman...

The story of Ancient Egypt and the extraordinary civilisation that flourished along the banks of the River Nile can seem like a gorgeous pageant studded with exceptional events. Among them...

On 8 February 1421 the largest fleet the world had ever seen sailed from its base in China. The ships, 500 foot long junks made from the finest teak and...

The incredible story of the "Robin Hood of the Seas," who absconded with millions during the Golden Age of Piracy and who harbored an even greater secret.Henry Avery of Devon...

In all the sagas of human migration, none can top the drama of the journey by mid-Western farmers to Oregon and California in the years 1840-49. Sandwiched between the era...

From the winner of the 2023 Wingate Literary Prize comes a fascinating and moving untold story of the Leningrad scientists who risked everything for the future of humanity*An Economist Book...

When it comes to world history, battles in tiny corners of Europe and the love affairs of kings often obscure the big picture. The No-Nonsense Guide to World History integrates...

Breaking the German Enigma codes was not only about brilliant mathematicians and professors at Bletchley Park. There is another aspect of the story which it is only now possible to...

`A magisterial, detailed and invaluable account of one of this century's greatest figures ... it is hard to believe that a better biography will ever be written.' Justin Cartwright, Sunday...

WATERSTONES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH AUGUST 2018 AND A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'An astonishingly detailed picture of espionage in the 1980s, written with pacey journalistic verve and an eerily contemporary...

'Keeps up the suspense to the end.' The Times Literary Supplement'An extraordinary, and largely forgotten wartime story -- brought back to life in this Boys' Own account.' The Daily MailHigh...