Secondhand History Books

This is a unique book to accompany an extraordinary new exhibition of one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th centuries, the Terracotta Army of the First Emperor of...

This, quite simply, is the definitive book on the life of the man who prepared the ground for victory in the Battle of Britain. Without him, Britain and the world...

The ancient Greeks invented democracy, theater, rational science, and philosophy. They built the Parthenon and the Library of Alexandria. Yet this accomplished people never formed a single unified social or...

A FINANCIAL TIMES HIGHLIGHT FOR 2026 'The most important reappraisal of modern China to appear in years' PETER FRANKOPAN, author of The Silk Roads and The Earth TransformedFrom renowned, prize-winning...

A moving account of how war is remembered - and by whom 'Impressive. A hundred individual histories, skillfully assembled, built into a poignant meditation on why they still matter' David...

The late 1950s was an action-packed, often dramatic time in which the contours of modern Britain began to take shape. These were the 'never had it so good' years, when...

David Kynaston's history of post-war Britain has so far taken us from the radically reforming Labour governments of the late 1940s in Austerity Britain, through the growing prosperity of Family...

In September 1939, the young Lord and Lady Ranfurly's idyllic holiday in Scotland was brought to a premature end when war broke out. Dan Ranfurly, with his faithful valet Whitaker,...

This study illustrates the conflicting values of the Victorian double standard - one is the very image of respectability, the other is represented by an undergrowth in which repressions sought...

A vivid, wide-ranging and engrossing account of Scotland's history, composed of eye-witness accounts by those who experienced it first-hand. Contributors range from Tacitus, Mary Queen of Scots and Oliver Cromwell...

Eleven essays by internationally-known medievalists are assembled in this book with the aim of creating a panoramic picture of medieval society from Florence to Paris and Seville to Warsaw and...

Still a controversial figure - as well as a celebrated one - Marie Antoinette's dramatic life-story continues to arouse mixed emotions. To many people, she is still 'la reine mechante',...

Although 1759 is not a date as well known in British history as 1215, 1588, or 1688, there is a strong case to be made that it is the most...

This book is a brilliant antidote to the military romanticism of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN or BAND OF BROTHERS. Part memoir, part history, it presents a series of episodes from the...

An epic account of Napoleon's invasion of Russia and eventual retreat from Moscow, events that had a profound effect on the subsequent course of Russian and European history. The saga...

A major new look at how Africa's geological history, climate, geography and biology resulted in the wonderful diversity of life found there. It is also the story of how it...

'Almost alone among contemporary critics, Tzvetan Todorov has chosen to apply his prodigious talents to the literature of twentieth-century totalitarianism. His unique gift is his ability to elucidatethe memoirs and...

President Bush has made it clear that we are engaged in a war against terrorism. But for Usama bin Laden and his followers this is religious war, a war for...

This history of the Renaissance surveys the extraordinary impact of the culture which dramatically affected Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. It examines the social, commerical and political background...

The resplendent sex symbol of the splendid century'... The reign of Athenais de Montespan as principal mistress of Louis XIV corresponds with the most glorious period of the Grand Siecle....

He emerged from the shadows of the Soviet secret police and lowly government jobs to become the most powerful man in Russia. Since Vladimir Putin was propelled into the Kremlin...