History

'Fizzes with clever vignettes and juicy tidbits... [a] joyous romp of a book.' Guardian'A fascinating, rollicking book in search of why, where and how fame strikes. Sit back and enjoy...

A full-scale new and revised edition of a pioneering work of synthesis, this book provides a comprehensive chronological narrative of the history of the British empire between 1815 and 1914,...

Xenophon's History recounts nearly fifty turbulent years of warfare in Greece between 411 and 362 BC. Continuing the story of the Peloponnesian War at the point where Thucydides finished his...

A dramatic retelling of the final years of the Western Roman Empire and the downfall of Rome itself from the perspective of the Roman general Stilicho and Alaric, king of...

Athens and Sparta were the two leading powers in the Classical Greek world. They represented entirely different systems of social organization: oligarchic conservatism at Sparta versus radical democracy at Athens....

A general introduction to the classical world from its origins to the fall of the Roman Empire. The book focuses on questions of how we know about Classical civilization from...

Robert Harvey brilliantly recreates the story of the greatest conflict that stretches from the first blaze of revolution in Paris in 1789 to final victory on the muddy fields of...

In September 1854, the armies of Britain, France and Turkey invaded Russia. In the months that followed over half a million soldiers fell. They died from bullet wounds and shrapnel,...

When travel journalist Sophie Campbell squeezed into heels and a hat to investigate the English social season, she got more than she bargained for. Why, she wondered, were events such...

Although the nineteenth-century elite looked on the Highlands and Islands as a sporting paradise, for the indigenous population it was a turbulent place. Rather than a rural idyll, the glens...

Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore, later Princess Henry of Battenberg, was the last-born - in 1866 - of Victoria and Albert's children, and she would outlive all of her siblings to...

The remarkable life of the vivacious, clever - and forgotten - Kennedy sister, who charmed the English aristocracy and was almost erased from her family history. The favourite child of...

THE EXTRAORDINARY TALE OF THE FATHER OF MODERN GEOLOGYHidden behind velvet curtains above a stairway in a house in London's Piccadilly is an enormous and beautiful hand-coloured map - the...

Dominating Ukraine has been the cornerstone of Russian policy for centuries - now, we are witnessing a genocide. The Russian invasion of Ukraine brought large-scale warfare to Europe, reshaped relations...

'An unrivalled and readable introduction to the years of Trench Warfare' TESThe First World War was won and lost on the Western Front. Covering the whole war, from the guns...

History is full to the brim with untold tales of heroics and villainy, gruesome battles, hilarious happenings and downright bizarre coincidences. Meet the war veteran who lost an eye and...

Imperium is the story of an empire, that constellation of states submerged under a single identity for most of the twentieth century: the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. This is...

Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany provides a succinct and provocative introduction to Italian fascism and German nazism. Incorporating recent historical research together with original and challenging arguments, Alexander J. De...

Vivid, powerful and absorbing, this is a first-person account of one of the most startling military episodes in history: the overthrow of Montezuma's doomed Aztec Empire by the ruthless Hernan...

Aeschylus (525-c.456 bc) set his great trilogy in the immediate aftermath of the Fall of Troy, when King Agamemnon returns to Argos, a victor in war. Agamemnon depicts the hero's...

Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survivedCATHERINE OF ARAGON: the pious Spanish Catholic who suffered years of miscarriages and failed to produce a male heir... ANNE BOLEYN: the pretty, clever, French-educated...

The sixth of nine volumes in the major Penguin History of Britain series, A Monarchy Transformed narrates the tempestuous political events of the Stuart dynasty. It charts the reigns of...

*NOW WITH A FUN PUB QUIZ* | Make room Herodotus, stand down Bede, pipe down Pepys - there's a new history book in town.From the chart-topping podcast The Rest is...

The official book created by the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, this keepsake volume honors those lost-and celebrates the spirit of hope as it tells the story of rescue,...

There is little documented mapping of conflict prior to the Renaissance period, but, from the 17th century onwards, military commanders and strategists began to document the wars in which they...

This timely illustrated book presents an engaging discussion about the role of the war correspondent, news gathering in a war zone, and the influence of technology on war reporting. Fully...

Many people have the idea that the 'Great War' on the Western Front was simple, if ghastly, to fight - with few tactics, and unbroken, monotonous, trench lines as the...

'...tactically the most absurd and strategically the most senseless campaign of the whole war.' Major-General J F C Fuller's verdict on the Italian Campaign, 1948 The invasion of Sicily on...

John Blake has drawn on his extensive knowledge of some of the most impressive collections in the world, such as the UKHO in Britain, the Library of Congress in the...

What is a homeland, and when does it become a national territory? Why have so many people been willing to die for such places throughout the twentieth century? What is...

Was the extermination of the Jews part of the Nazi plan from the very start? The distinguished historian Arno Mayer offers a startling and compelling answer to a much-debated question...

Rossana Rossanda is one of the most important and influential intellectuals on the European Left, and was one of its key figures in the second half of the twentieth century....

The Reformation was originally an attack on a corrupt Church, sparked by Martin Luther. Thomas Muntzer, originally Luther's protege, became increasingly convinced that the Reformation did not go far enough....

Following the success of Rees' bestselling Auschwitz, this substantially revised and updated edition of The Nazis - A Warning from History tells the powerfully gripping story of the rise and...

Jurgen Kocka is one of the foremost historians of Germany whose work has been devoted to the integration of different genres of the social and economic history of Europe during...

Gisela Richter's classic book, first published in 1959, is the indispensable introduction to the study of Greek art: clear, factual, authoritative, and at the same time inspired and sensitive in...

With wit, intelligence and his trademark eye for riveting detail, John Julius Norwich has brought together the most important and fascinating events from his trilogy of the rise and fall...

As the western world's most wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden has fought to keep his personal life a mystery - loyalty and fear keeping those who know him from speaking...

BY THE AUTHOR OF CHERNOBYL: HISTORY OF A TRAGEDY, WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2018WINNER OF THE PUSHKIN HOUSE RUSSIAN BOOK PRIZE 2015On Christmas Day 1991 Mikhail Gorbachev resigned...

The bestselling historian's biography of a decisive figure in England's history.No Englishman has made more impact on the history of his nation than Oliver Cromwell; few have been so persistently...