History

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...

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...

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...

'Rigorously researched, The Lost Cafe Schindler successfully weaves together a compelling and at times deeply moving memoir and family history that also chronicles the wider story of the Jews 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...

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...

An expert account of the development, role, and capabilities of the S-300 and S-400 air defence missile systems, key strategic weapons in Putin's Russia.Few modern missile systems have had such...

A new illustrated study of the devastating, but little-known, Soviet armored blitzkrieg against the Japanese in the last weeks of World War II, and how it influenced Soviet tank doctrine...

A history of the US Navy's remarkable 1945 South China Sea raid against the Japanese, the first time in history that a carrier fleet dared to rampage through coastal waters.As...

Robert Forczyk covers the development of armoured warfare in North Africa from the earliest Anglo-Italian engagements in 1940 to the British victory over the German Afrikakorps in Operation Crusader in...

Featuring specially commissioned artwork and maps, carefully chosen illustrations and insightful analysis, this book examines the legendary Mongol warriors and their vastly different European opponents. Having conquered much of Central...

A GUARDIAN, ECONOMIST AND PROSPECT BOOK OF THE YEAR'A superb book' Simon Sebag Montefiore'An empowering story of human ingenuity' Economist'Full of curious facts' The TimesCauses of death have changed irrevocably...

Fully illustrated with colour maps and images, this is an accessible introduction to Julius Caesar's Civil War.Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great were two of the greatest generals Rome had...

Derek Hastings's Nationalism in Modern Europe is the essential guide to a potent political and cultural phenomenon that featured prominently across the modern era. With firm grounding in transnational and...

The American war against British imperial rule (1775-1783) was the world's first great popular revolution. Ideologically defined by the colonists' formal Declaration of Independence in 1776, the struggle has taken...

Fully illustrated, this study assesses the Soviet and Waffen-SS troops who contested the cities of Kharkov and Rostov-on-Don on the Eastern Front during 1942-43. As the Axis invasion of the...