History

For over four thousand years the Mediterranean was the centre of Western civilization. Geographically, it is a whole world in miniature, an inland sea whose shores encompass every type of...

This powerful study chronicles the evolution of the invasion plan and culminates in a day-by-day account of the landings by sea and by air on the Normandy beaches, followed by...

From their remote origins as migrating tribes to their rise as builders of empire, the Aztecs were among the most dynamic and feared peoples of ancient Mexico. This fully revised...

New in paperback, here is a highly readable account of 56 of the extraordinary characters whose lives were the defining threads in the great adventure and final tragedy that was...

Two thousand years ago, the Romans sought to absorb into their empire what they regarded as a remote, almost mythical island on the very edge of the known world -...

In February 2012, in a Munich flat belonging to the elderly recluse, Cornelius Gurlitt, German customs authorities seized an astonishing hoard of more than 1,200 paintings, drawings and prints. When...

In this dazzling new book, cultural critic and historian Peter Conrad tells the story of the spectacular rise and subsequent waning of American influence across the world since 1945. Politics,...

China is the most populous country on earth, with the longest history of any modern nation. In the 21st century, it is clear that China's future, as a political and...

From Augustus to Romulus Augustulus, this comprehensive volume reveals how the Roman Emperors ran the empire in peace and war, in public and behind the scenes. Seven thematic chapters range...

A distinguished international team of military historians provides an enthralling overview of the careers and leadership of the world's greatest military commanders on land, at sea and in the air,...

From the migrations out of Africa by our earliest ancestors to the latest voyages into space, an incredible team of historians, travellers and explorers brings to life seventy of humanity's...

This comprehensive volume encompasses not just the greatest land battles of all time, but sieges such as Constantinople and Tenochtitlan; naval battles such as Actium, the Armada, Trafalgar and Tsushima;...

They called him the 'angriest black man in America' . . . Celebrated and vilified the world over for his courageous but bitter fight to gain for millions of black...

Up until very recently it was believed that in 1491, the year before Columbus landed, the Americas, one-third of the earth's surface, were a near-pristine wilderness inhabited by small roaming...

The village of Kibworth in Leicestershire lies at the very centre of England. It has a church, some pubs, the Grand Union Canal, a First World War Memorial - and...

Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime Minister in 1979, the first woman to hold the position, and the first woman in the Western world to lead a nation. Within two years...

Lieutenant Colonel Charles Bevan was the key figure in an extraordinary, controversial and ultimately tragic episode during the Peninsula War. He was the commanding officer held responsible for the dramatic...

This is a chilling memoir by the head of Hitler's Foreign Intelligence Service. This unique account of Hitler's corrupt regime illuminates more vividly than any other the deepening atmosphere of...

the Wild Days of the Palmer River Gold Rush "What with cannibal blacks, pig-tailed Chinamen in thousands, lynch-law hangings, gambling dens, shanty towns, murders, grog-shops and Italian opera singers, the...

America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, imposes few restraints upon its citizens. From the Founding Fathers and the Constitution onwards, the individual and his...

There are few characters in history about whom opinion has been more divided than the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, and his wife the Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna. On one...

'A thrilling celebration of lighthouses' i newspaperAn enthralling history of Britain's rock lighthouses, and the people who built and inhabited themLighthouses are enduring monuments to our relationship with the sea....

The subject of this book is the life of the Mexicans-the Mexica, as they said themselves-at the beginning of the sixteenth century. At that time, in the early 1500s, nobody,...

The religious thinkers, political leaders, law-makers, writers and philosophers of the early Muslim world helped to shape the 1,400-year-long development of today's second- largest world religion. But who were these...

Carole Hillenbrand's book offers a profound understanding of the history of Muslims and their faith, from the life of Muhammad to the religion practised by 1.6 billion people around the...

Where are the tombs of Alexander the Great or Cleopatra? Both rulers were buried in Egypt, but their tombs have never been found despite years of intensive research and excavation....

It is time for a new book about bog bodies: the number of known bodies is growing. Lindow Man, the famous 'Pete Marsh' discovered in Cheshire in the 1980s, has...

This pioneering book brings together for the first time the latest genetic evidence and combines it with archaeology and linguistics to produce a new history of Europe. Who are the...

How did prehistoric peoples - those living before written records - think? Were their modes of thought fundamentally different from ours today? Researchers over the years have certainly believed so....

This sumptuous new book reveals the greatest civilization of the ancient world through the lives of 100 men and women who experienced it at first hand. Lavishly illustrated with spectacular...

This brilliantly argued and elegantly written book examines the intricate web of belief, myth and society in the Neolithic period, continuing the story begun in the bestselling and critically acclaimed...

Here is the most extensive illustrated single-volume dictionary of ancient Egypt in existence. From Aba to Zoser, from aegis to zodiac, this book will be invaluable to all those seeking...

The Seventy Great Inventions of the Ancient World traces the course of human ingenuity and innovation from the first crude stone tools of our earliest ancestors two and a half...

The Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World expands on the traditional Seven Wonders to incorporate an impressive number of marvels from around the globe, spanning the centuries from the first...

Now updated--the one-stop guide to significant events in world history Written for students and lifelong learners, this detailed overview of human history takes readers from the discovery of fire to...

Iran is a land of contradictions. It is an Islamic republic, but one in which only 1.4 percent of the population attend Friday prayers. Iran's religious culture encompasses the most...

"As panoramic as it is learned, this is ancient history for our globalized world." Tom Holland, author of Dynasty and Rubicon Twenty-five-hundred years ago, civilizations around the world entered a...

King John (1166-1216) has long been seen as the epitome of bad kings. The son of the most charismatic couple of the middle ages, Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine,...

There is little debate that the Renaissance began at the end of the fourteenth century. Its end, though, is much more difficult to pin down. Here, for the first time,...

If I had been present at the Creation," the thirteenth-century Spanish philosopher-king Alfonso X is said to have stated, Many faults in the universe would have been avoided." Known as...

In 1521, the Catholic Church declared war on Martin Luther. The German monk had already been excommunicated the year before, after nailing his Ninety-Five Theses,which accused the Church of rampant...