Secondhand History Books

This title is a journalist's account, much of it as an eye-witness, of South Africa's history from Malan to Mbeki, deftly tracing South Africa's transition from apartheid to a constitutional...

The 1960 presidential election, won ultimately by John F. Kennedy, was one of the closest and most contentious in American history. The country had never elected a Roman Catholic president,...

The story of the Third Crusade, and the two men who dictated its outcome: Saladin, hero of the Islamic world and Richard the Lionheart. Richard and the King of France...

Over the last ten years, journalist and al-Qa'ida expert Abdel Bari Atwan has cultivated uniquely well-placed sources and amassed a wealth of information about al-Qa'ida's origins, masterminds and plans for...

"The Cage is a tightly written and clear-eyed narrative about one of the most disturbing human dramas of recent years. . . . A riveting, cautionary tale about the consequences...

The key issue of why the Ottoman Turks won the 1915 Gallipoli campaign has never been satisfactorily answered. This new history of the campaign aims to answer that question while...

1992 and 1993 will be remembered as the years in which a European country was destroyed. It was a land with a political and cultural history unlike any other, where...

What turned Adolf Hitler, a relatively normal and apparently unexceptional young man, into the very personification of evil? To answer this question, acclaimed historian Brigitte Hamann has turned to the...

The term "biography" seems insufficiently capacious to describe the singular achievement of Joseph Frank's five-volume study of the life of the great Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky. One critic, writing upon...

Beginning with his childhood and the sexual abuse that he likely suffered in the care of his nurse, MacCarthy here offers an evenhanded portrait of the legendary Byron. She chronicles...

No company in our time has been as mysterious or as controversial as Blackwater. Founded by former Navy SEAL Erik Prince in 1997, it recruited special forces veterans and others...

This book lays bare the truth behind the adventures of Flashman and Sharpe. It includes ten eyewitness accounts of the battles, the privations and the adventure of armed service during...

Decolonization revolutionized the international order during the twentieth century. Yet standard histories that present the end of colonialism as an inevitable transition from a world of empires to one of...

The author offers a reassessment of how women's experience of work in 18th- century England was affected by industrialization and other elements of economic, social and technological change.; This study...

Last year, the telly-watching public was gripped by Downton Abbey - the most successful British period drama in years and the number-one most-watched new drama programme of 2010. Captivated by...

David Kynaston's Austerity Britain 1945-51, the first book in his series Tales of a New Jerusalem, was a major Sunday Times bestseller in 2007. Here is the second volume from...

'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....

Between April 20th and June 22nd of 1945 the anonymous author of A Woman in Berlin wrote about life within the falling city as it was sacked by the Russian...

'Elegant and multi-focal. Glorious!' Simon GarfieldThe humble pair of glasses might just be one the world's greatest inventions, allowing millions to see a world that might otherwise appear a blur....

Examines the causes of the September 11, 2001 attacks, and also provides a reasoned approach as to what the future may hold. As the dust settled around the devastation of...

Britain, as the most powerful of the European victors of World War One, had a unique responsibility to maintain the peace in the aftermath of the Treaty of Versailles. The...

Bob Woodward's new book draws from hundreds of interviews with key administration figures, their deputies and other firsthand sources. In addition, the book is based on extensive documentation, including internal...

A New York Times BestsellerThe international best-selling author explores the revolutions, past and present, that define the chaotic, polarized and unstable age in which we live.Fareed Zakaria first warned of...

The ancient port of Jaffa, now part of Tel Aviv, was once known as the 'Bride of Palestine'. It was one of the great cosmopolitan cities of the Mediterranean. Once...

In May 1927 Lindbergh became the first solo pilot to cross the Atlantic non-stop. He had spent over 33 hours in the air and was feted as a new American...

The participants in the battle of Gallipoli tell the story of the failed offensive through contemporary accounts and memories recorded later in life. The bitter campaign against the Turks from...

This book traces the development of Bomber Command from its early days into one of the most potent weapons of World War II. The author provides a frank, warts-and-all portrayal...

Whilst sailing between Hawaii and Tahiti in January 1824, the captain and officers of the Nantucket whaling ship 'the Globe' were attacked with whaling gear, shot, and dumped overboard under...

THE TOP 10 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERShortlisted for the Andre Simon Food and Drink Book Awards for 2019'A beautifully textured tour around the cheeseboard' Simon Garfield'Full of flavour' Sunday Times'A delightful...

Winner of the Jhalak Prize & Plutarch Award | A New York Times, New Yorker, Washington Post, Newsweek, TIME Book of the Year 2023'Fabulously entertaining' Daily Telegraph \ 'Perfect for...

A nation on the cusp of war. A king ousted from his capital by the people. A society on the brink of collapse. From Jonathan Healey comes a thrilling history...

"Modern History" completes, with "Ancient History" (published in 2004), a new two-volume illustrated edition, completely revised and fully updated, of the late J.M. Roberts' "History of the World", first published...