Secondhand History Books

In the early hours of New Year's Eve, 1994, Russian troops invaded the Republic of Chechnya, plunging the country into a prolonged and bloody conflict that continues to this day....

While much of the US media and the professional political classes whip themselves into a frenzy as to how President Trump got into office and how he is behaving there,...

'An incredible and stirring story . . . a mix of competition, camaraderie as well as a larky sense of adventure . . . Down goes the flag. Smash goes...

From groundbreaking writer and thinker Jared Diamond comes an epic, visionary new book on the mysterious collapse of past civilizations - and what this means for our future. Why do...

The events of a few days in August 1945 brought WWII to an end. They also destroyed the city of Nagasaki and killed 80,000 of its inhabitants, half of them...

The archetype of the stern, silent Englishman dedicated to his duty, the Duke of Wellington had all the subtlety and variety of genius. This biography uncovers the sensitive child of...

In his early years, Napoleon was a Corsican nationalist who considered the French to be oppressors. Nevertheless,he was sent to military academies in France, and when he graduated in 1785,...

In this tenth anniversary edition of his award-winning memoir, New York Times bestselling author Peter Balakian has expanded his compelling story about growing up in the baby-boom suburbs of the...

The clever peasant Arnaud du Tilh had almost persuaded the learned judges at the Parlement of Toulouse when, on a summer's day in 1560, a man swaggered into the court...

Intelligence specialist Leigh Neville identifies, describes and illustrates the Special Operations Forces (SOF) of the British, American and other Coalition forces committed to the 'War on Terror' in Afghanistan since...

WINNER OF THE 2024 PULITZER PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE'A deeply immersive portrait of daily life in Israel and the West Bank' The...

A fully revised, expanded and updated edition of this masterly portrayal of contemporary Spain.The restoration of democracy in 1977 heralded a period of intense change that continues today. Spain has...

One of the world's most celebrated scholars, Stephen Greenblatt has crafted both an innovative work of history and a thrilling story of discovery, in which one manuscript, plucked from a...

What is the Holocaust? Were Hitlet and his executioners sadistic psychopaths? Were ordinary Germans morally culpable for murdering millions of innocent victims? This volume seeks to explore these and other...

What life was like for ordinary French and English people, embroiled in a devastating century-long conflict that changed their world The Hundred Years War (1337-1453) dominated life in England and...

The instant Sunday Times bestsellerA Times, BBC History Magazine and Daily Mail Book of the Year The UK's bestselling medieval historian brings unforgettably to life the astonishing rise of Henry...

Following Rivers of Gold and The Golden Age, World Without End is the conclusion of a magisterial three-volume history of the Spanish Empire by Hugh Thomas, its foremost worldwide authorityWorld...

Over the last two years a controversy has erupted in the world's press over the Dead Sea Scrolls that were found in caves 20 miles east of Jerusalem between 1947...

Between the Sack of Rome by the Gauls in 390 BC and the middle of the second century BC, a part-time army of Roman peasants, under the leadership of the...

A fascinating account from award-winning author, Adam Nicolson, on the history of Nicolson's own national treasure, his family home: Sissinghurst. Sissinghurst is world famous as a place of calm and...

The untold story of how Felice della Rovere, the illegitimate daughter of Pope Julius II, became the most powerful woman in Rome. Caroline P. Murphy evokes not only the great...

Code breaking has always played a key role in espionage. Now, with the advent of electronic banking and wide-spread concerns about personal privacy, the issues surrounding the coding and decoding...

Explores all aspects of the most talked about secret society in the world, from its most famous members to its infamous history. For centuries the Freemasonry has been the subject...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITINGLONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTIONONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR IN FINANCIAL TIMES, ECONOMIST, NEW YORK TIMES,...

China's secret rulers are the elephant in the room. They are the largest political organisation in the world. They control every aspect of Chinese life. And no one discusses them....

The Affair of the Poisons, as it was known, was a scandal at which 'all France trembled' and which 'horrified the whole of Europe' as it implicated a number of...

Meet the woman behind the politician'Offers a remarkable new view of a remarkable and still under-appreciated leader' Simon JenkinsSince stepping down in 1990, Margaret Thatcher has become a cardboard cut-out...

THE PACIFIC is a gripping piece of historical writing following the extraordinary true stories of four U.S. Marines and a U.S. Navy carrier pilot fighting in the Pacific region during...

An explosive account of the inner workings of the George W. Bush administration, written with the extensive cooperation of former U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. As readers are taken to...

Bestselling author Harry Sidebottom takes readers on a thrilling journey through a day in the life of the most iconic figure of the ancient world: the Roman gladiator'Wonderfully panoramic ......

The attack of 11 September was a terrorist atrocity of unprecedented scale, attracting near-universal condemnation from the international community. But was the bombing of Afghanistan, some three weeks later, the...

'Compelling, laudably unsentimental and deeply significant.' -- Frances Stonar Saunders, GuardianIn 1922, Lenin personally drew up a list of some 220 'undesirable' intellectuals to be deported in preparation for the...

Tied to a Channel 4 television series in three one-hour parts, this is the story of the breaking of the Enigma code at Bletchley Park during World War II. That...

What kind of world are we making for ourselves? Martin Bell uses his personal experiences as a reporter of eleven wars (to date), and independent MP, to write an impassioned,...