Secondhand History Books

The order of the Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem is the most long-lived military orders of knighthood. Founded in a hospice on the road to Jerusalem, it never...

In 1900 just over a thousand British civil servants ruled a population of nearly 300 million people spread over a territory now covered by India, Pakistan, Burma and Bangladesh. In...

Edmund Burke was the dominant political thinker of the last quarter of the eighteenth century in England. His reputation depends less on his role as a practising politician than on...

An award-winning travel writer and journalist uncovers the rich and unexpected history of Britain's deep-rooted ties with South America.Small Earthquakes uncovers the fascinating story of Britain's forgotten connections with South...

First published in 1994. In Poles Apart the author is trying to tell the story of Poland's democratic transition through the personal stories of the men and women that she...

An extraordinary piece of international survival literature, joining the likes of Primo Levi and Anne Frank.In 1941, 14-year-old Dalia and her family are deported from their native Lithuania to a...

For two centuries the officers and men of the London Scottish have faithfully served their country, never more so than during the terrible years of the Great War. Initially with...

A wonderful piece of literary detective work that charts the colliding lives of Russia's greatest poet and the man who killed him in their duel - cultural history that reads...

In I Never Knew That About New York Christopher Winn digs beneath the gleaming towers and mean streets of New York and discovers its secrets and its hidden treasures. Learn...

Since 1945, the European states which had previously glamorised their military elites, and made going to war the highest expression of patriotism, have renounced violence as a way of settling...

'Packed with insight and anecdote, his story brings the Tower ravens to vivid life, each bird with a personality of its own. I've been fortunate enough to tour the Tower...

In 1989, Tim Moore moved into the last house in Chiswick with an outside toilet. Intrigued by a subsequent encounter with an elderly former resident, he finds himself inspired to...

At a time when the West seems ever more eager to call on military aggression as a means of securing international peace, Nicholson Baker's provocative narrative exploring the political misjudgements...

PREZZA: PULLING NO PUNCHES finally tells the remarkable journey of an 11-plus failure who became a union firebrand, a campaigning MP and Britain's longest-serving deputy prime minister. Whether you regard...

John Grahame of Claverhouse is to some Bonnie Dundee, a charming and cultured man and military tactician, to others Bluidy Claivers, a demonic and brutal killer slain by a silver...

Most people's concept of the 'end of the world' comes from the book of Revelation. Alternative apocalypses can be found in the Zoroastrianism of ancient Persia, in ancient Hindu scriptures...

Their mission was straightforward - to set up an Al Qaeda observation post in the south-eastern mountains of Afghanistan. No-one was expecting any difficulties. Instead three men - a Navy...

Americans spend billions of dollars every year on drugs, therapy, and other remedies trying to get a good night\u2019s sleep. Anxieties about not getting enough sleep and the impact of...

Christopher Hitchens' iconclastic collection is the perfect companion to US-UK relations by the greatest Anglo-American writer of his generation.Since the end of the Cold War so-called experts have been predicting...

Leading journalist and social critic Christopher Hitchens offers a startlingly new and provocative interpretation of America's founding father, situating Jefferson within the context of America's evolution and tracing his legacy...

This book covers every aspect of Kennedy's foreign policy - Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, Vietnam, the Middle East, and Canada, and subjects such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, atomic...

Read all about it! This book tells it all from some of our most widely reported headlines. This wonderful gift book displays the highs and lows of the media and...

Over 50 momentous and thought-provoking speeches from a wide range of historical eras and nations. Complete with biographies of each speaker, the history of why each speech was significant and...

MARSILIO FICINO of Florence (1433-99) was one of the most influential thinkers of the Renaissance. He put before society a new ideal of human nature, emphasising its divine potential. As...

This publication is an entirely new study of the Armenian people from the late 5th to the early 20th century. Taking as its starting point the internationally important collection of...

No rags to riches story can compare with that of Napoleon and Josephine,two outsiders who rose to become Emperor and Empress of the French Republic.Evangeline Bruce's joint biography embraces the...