History

What happens when you put the Roman Empire in the hands of a teenage boy? Discover the scandalous life and times of Rome's worst emperor. 'Buy the book; it's very...

Tariq Ali revisits his formative years as a young radical. Reissued for the 1968 anniversary, Street-Fighting Years captures the mood and energy of the era of hope and passion as...

Group Captain Gilbert Insall holdsa unique record: he is the only person to have both won a Victoria Cross andescaped successfully from a German prisoner of war camp during the...

Honour, Violence and Emotions in History is the first book to draw on emerging cross-disciplinary scholarship on the study of emotions to analyse the history of honour and violence across...

'Beguiling and original...' Marina Warner1920s Cairo: singers were pressing hit records, dramatic troupes were springing up and cabarets were packed - a counterculture was on the rise. In bars, hash-dens...

This collection of the world's worst disasters covers a range of catastrophes, from the natural calamities such as the eruption of Vesuvius or the Indian Ocean Tsunami to unstoppable diseases...

Unseen behind the throne, two sides of the royal bloodline competed for influence, and egregious family secrets had to be protected. Meanwhile, in public, a succession of family ruptures put...

*A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK and GUARDIAN BEST PAPERBACK OF APRIL 2024*The first book to tell the story of day-to-day life on the nuclear home front -...

The Algerian War of Independence (1954-62), also known as the Algerian Revolution, was a messy and vicious conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front. Waged primarily in Algeria,...

A New York Times Notable Book Best Books of 2021: TIME, Smithsonian New York Times Book Review * Editors' Choice A radical reckoning with the racial inequality of America's past...

A BBC History Magazine Book of the Year'One of the most important books to be written about the Tudors in a generation.' Tracy BormanIn this groundbreaking history, Sarah Gristwood reveals...

War, revolution, treason and love - the thrilling tale of Sir John of Gaunt brought to life by medieval history's rising star.'The Red Prince announces Helen Carr as one of...

A History Book of the Year in The Times 'Cozzens is a master storyteller; his books weave a wealth of intricate detail into gripping historical narrative.' The Times'Marvellous... One of...

In 1920 an Arab revolt came perilously close to inflicting a shattering defeat upon the British Empire's forces occupying Iraq after the Great War. A huge peasant army besieged British...

The courageous pilots of the Royal Air Force who faced the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain, affectionately known as 'the Few', are rightly hailed as heroes. Recently, efforts have...

It's been said that, after 9/11, the 2008 financial crash and the Covid-19 pandemic, we're a more fearful society than ever before. Yet fear, and the panic it produces, have...

Captain Charles Johnson's celebrated A General History of the Pirates (1724) is the most famous book about pirates ever written. Buoyed by the volume's runaway success Johnson followed up with...

'Thrilling ... High-definition history: tight, thrilling and beautifully researched' SUNDAY TIMES 'This book is a triumph' DAN SNOW 9.07 a.m., April 12, 1961. A top-secret rocket site in the USSR....

'One of our very best writers on France.' Antony BeevorAfter publishing an acclaimed biography of Jean Moulin, leader of the French Resistance, Patrick Marnham received an anonymous letter from a...

The new Cabinet in January 1924 consisted, as governments had for generations, of twenty white, middle-aged men. But that is where the similarities with previous governments ended, for the election...

The International Bestseller The inspiration for Impeachment: American Crime Story The definitive account of the Clinton-Lewinsky sex scandals, A Vast Conspiracy casts an insightful eye over the extraordinary ordeal that...

A bestseller in hardback, this is a highly-praised and much-needed biography of the first Duke of Wellington, concentrating on the personal life of the victor of Waterloo, and based on...

Health, disease and society in Europe 1500-1800 considers how the body was viewed by the medical profession from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, and challenges established ideas in the field...

How 19th-century soldier, adventurer and scholar Henry Rawlinson deciphered cuneiform, the world's earliest writing, and rediscovered Iraq's ancient civilisations. This is the exciting, true adventure story of Henry Rawlinson, a...

Not since the Roman Empire has any nation had as much economic, cultural, and military power as the United States does today. Yet, as has become all too evident through...

The devastating September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon left us stunned, angry, and uncomprehending. As it became clear that these horrifying acts had been committed...

Nathan Haselbauer, President of the International High IQ Society, has painstakingly researched and designed this impressively varied collection of over 500 mind-bending puzzles to enable you to determine just how...

A grand and fascinating figure in Victorian politics, the charismatic Lord Palmerston (1784-1865) served as foreign secretary for fifteen years and prime minister for nine, engaged in struggles with everyone...

The end of the First World War saw Britain at the height of its power. Its fleet and air force were the largest in the world. Its armies had triumphed...

From an acclaimed British author, a sharply focused, riveting account - told from inside the White House - of the crucial days, hours, and moments when the Watergate conspiracy consumed,...

In the West's collective imagination, Vladimir Putin is a devious cartoon villain, constantly plotting and scheming to destroy his enemies around the globe. But how did an undistinguished mid-level KGB...

'Powerful and poetic ... For anyone interested in the myth of Che Guevara ... this book is essential reading' Colm Toibin, Observer'We were an army of shadows, of ghosts, walking...

At the height of WWI, history's most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million...

From the bestselling author Simon Winchester, a human history of land around the world: who mapped it, owned it, stole it, cared for it, fought for it and gave it...

A brilliant history of the rise to dominance of the West, exploring the links between cultural values and military success. Instead of weighing up the West through its cultural and...

Situated off Ireland's southwest coast, inhospitable and uninhabited today, the Great Skellig or Skellig Michael fascinates all who visit it, and recently served as the magnificent backdrop for the final...

Many books have been written, and continue to be written, about the Second World War: military histories, histories of the Holocaust, the war in Asia, or collaboration and resistance in...

Britain in the nineteenth century saw a series of technological and social changes which continue to influence and direct us today. Its reactants were human genius, money and influence, its...