Secondhand History Books

'A deed of glory intimately involved in high strategy' - Winston Churchill St Nazaire, 1.34am March 28th, 1942 - the destroyer HMS Campbeltown , with her Oerlikons blazing at the...

In October 1942, Chief of Combined Operations, Vice-Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, unveiled the outline plan for 'Operation Frankton' - destined to become one of the bravest, most courageous and imaginative...

This biography concentrates on Cleopatra's ever-shifting identity. Depending on the audience, she might present herself as a goddess, a political leader, or an alluring and exotic woman. Roman statesmen likewise...

'Beautifully written, sumptuously illustrated, constantly fascinating' - The TimesOn 26 November 1922 Howard Carter first peered into the newly opened tomb of an ancient Egyptian boy-king. When asked if he...

Linda Colley's latest book is at once a grand saga, a remarkable detective story, and a major work of revisionist British and imperial history. Ranging in setting from white slave...

This collection of first-hand experiences from the whole of history enables the reader to relive some of the world's greatest moments. Writers from Herodotus, Thucydides, and Plutarch, to Tom Wolfe,...

America is in crisis. In the space of a generation, it has become more than ever a country of winners and losers, as industries have failed, institutions have disappeared and...

In 1863, the French painter Ernest Meissonier was one of the most famous artists in the world and the darling of the 'Salon' - that all important public art exhibition...

The Colosseum was Imperial Rome's monument to warfare. Like a cathedral of death it towered over the city and invited its citizens, 50,000 at a time, to watch murderous gladiatorial...

A delightful, entertaining and illuminating investigation into our peculiar fascination with making things small, and what small things tell us about the world at large.Simon Garfield reveals the secret histories...

The short but savage Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 pitched well-equipped but complacent British soldiers into combat with the Zulu, one of history's finest fighting forces. The clashes between these two...

In the African kingdom of Kasch the king should be sacrificed when the stars come into a particular alignment. One day a stranger arrives who tells such good yarns the...

As we move toward trials challenging the legitimacy of the Bush administration's use of detentions in Guantanamo and elsewhere, Roosevelt's response to the captured Germans - military tribunals, a secret...

From the bustling bazaars of Tabriz to the mysterious island of Caldihe, Anthony Bale brings history alive, inviting the reader to travel across a medieval world.'A joyful, erudite book ....

John Julius Norwich presents a sweeping tour of forty great cities that shaped the ancient world and its civilizations - and which in turn have shaped our own. The cities...

When we think of archaeology, most of us think first of its many spectacular finds: the legendary city of Troy, Tutankhamun's golden tomb, the three-million-year-old footprints at Laetoli, the mile-high...

Covers the major events of world history for each day of the year. Newspaper-style articles, many of them illustrated, cover all the main news stories of the day in a...

One of the most intelligent and influential women in America reflects on her eight years as First Lady of the United States in a revealing book -personal, political and newsmaking....

Objects are the way in which we can touch the past, and they play a living role in history today. Through them, we can understand the experience of men and...

Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and winner of the Royal Society Prize for Science Books, Richard Holmes's dazzling portrait of the age of great scientific discovery is a groundbreaking...

A BBC History Magazine Book of the Year'One of the most important books to be written about the Tudors in a generation.' Tracy BormanIn this groundbreaking history, Sarah Gristwood reveals...

"Remarkable insight and sensitivity ...deepen[s] our understanding of human resilience and how people rebuild their lives from tragic circumstances." --KENNETH ROTH, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch "The stories in this...

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the 7th annual Robert Kennedy Book Award, this biography of Martin Luther King, first published in 1986, portrays the struggles and conflicts within the...

When separate worlds collide..."I was 19 years old when I came face to face with Nelson Mandela. He was 60. Until that day I had never heard of him, or...

At the age of ten Thomas Buergenthal arrived at Auschwitz after surviving the Ghetto of Kielce and two labour camps, and was soon separated from his parents. Using his wits...

*WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NON-FICTION*'A Great American Novel in the guise of a Great Nonfiction Epic, The Unwinding asks...do we truly like the world we have made...

In this anthology of "terminological inexactitudes", "economies with the truth" and whopping untruths, Philip Kerr has come up with examples of the art of lying from the era of the...