Secondhand History Books

What was the tallest building of the ancient world? Or the average life expectancy in medieval Byzantium? Where did scientific writing first emerge? What was the bloodiest ritual human sacrifice...

National history is a vital part of national self-definition. Most books on the history of the world try to impose a uniform narrative, written usually from a single writer's point...

The acclaimed autobiography of Fidel Castro, one of the towering political figures of our age, who dominated both Cuba and the world stage for over half a century.Here Castro tells...

Written by the author of "The Embarrassment of Riches" and "Citizens", this book is about man's search for his cultural origins in the landscape which surrounds him, a search which...

Celebratory, witty and incredibly insightful, Harry Bingham explores the eccentricities and customs of the British nation in a bid to answer a question which has everyone debating - Who are...

The final book of the brilliant historian and indomitable public critic Tony Judt, Thinking the Twentieth Century unites the conflicted intellectual history of an epoch into a soaring narrative. The...

Reynolds' readable and scholarly yet entertaining book explores the rich variety of relations between pushy, homesick American GIs, famously lampooned as 'over-paid, over-sexed, over-fed and over here' and their British...

Augustus was the founder of the Roman Empire, adopted son of Julius Caesar, friend and later foe of Mark Antony, patron of Horace and Virgil. Frank and forceful, this putative...

A famous and classic account: "where Mr Clark really shines is in his ability to reproduce the titanic scale of the conflict, in all its ingredients of suspense, horror and...

Now a major TV series, Mary & George, starring Julianne Moore and Nicholas Galitzine.The King's Assassin is the scandalous story of George Villiers, lover - and murderer - of King...

Patterns of Madness in the Eighteenth Century draws together extracts from writing about madness between the late seventeenth and the early nineteenth centuries, a period that saw a general decline...

Everyone is familiar with the story of D-Day and the triumphal liberation of France by the Allies: a barbaric enemy was defeated by Allied ingenuity, courage and overwhelming military force,...

'Fighting was raging on the other side of the Channel, but in London, in the warmth of a drowsy late-September afternoon, the war seemed a long way away. The roads...

This collaboration between 12 historians from all over Europe aims to provide a truly European view of the history of the continent of Europe. Beginning by examining the concept of...

Mary Queen of Scots passed her childhood in France and married the Dauphin to become Queen of France at the age of sixteen. Widowed less than two years later, she...

Eight hundred years ago, the Cathars, a group of heretical Christians from all walks of society, high and low, flourished in what is now the Languedoc in Southern France. Their...

An essential collection of articles, tables and notes, to define and explain the modern uses and relationships - as well as the global origins, evolution and culture - of the...

The Sunday Times Bestseller and Waterstones Paperback of the Year 2024 A Sunday Times History Book of the Year A Spectator Book of the Year The Irish Times No.1 Bestseller...

Niall Ferguson's acclaimed bestseller on the highs and lows of Britain's empireOnce vast swathes of the globe were coloured imperial red and Britannia ruled not just the waves, but the...

The fascinating tale of one of the most remarkable inventions in human history and its effects on science, myth, religion, manners, and the arts. Of all human inventions, the mirror...

The completely updated edition of J. M. Roberts and Odd Arne Westad's widely acclaimed, landmark bestseller The Penguin History of the WorldFor generations of readers The Penguin History of the...

'Fascinating' The Times'Tantalising . . . Low's conclusion is a valuable one.' The TelegraphThe gripping account of how the Royal family really operates from the man who has spent years...

'A brilliant and heart-wrenching book, with universal and timely lessons about the power of information - and misinformation' Yuval Noah Harari'An immediate classic of Holocaust literature . . . I...

In the middle of the eighteenth century, British entrepreneurs unleashed the astounding energies of steam and coal and the world changed forever. Factories, railways and gunboats then propelled the West's...

A tale of decadence and excess, great houses and wild parties, love and sexual intrigue, this biography of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, casts an astonishing new light on the nobility...

This intriguing book tells the story of England's great medieval Angevin dynasty in an entirely new way. Departing from the usual king-centric narrative, Richard Huscroft instead centers each of his...

A brilliantly arresting historical work, John Lewis Gaddis's The Cold War takes us as never before to the time when the world stood on the brink of destruction. In 1945...

When nineteen year old Alexander Scrimgeour lost his life at the Battle of Jutland in 1916, he had already left a legacy - complete diaries spanning the previous six years,...