Secondhand History Books

Alastair Cooke's Letter from America: 1946-2004 is a defining collection from his legendary BBC Radio broadcasts that guides us through nearly sixty years of changing life in the United States....

Ken Clarke needs no introduction. One of the genuine 'Big Beasts' of the political scene, during his forty-six years as the Member of Parliament for Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire he has...

"A country that seems to lean into the void but never really falls into it may actually be firmly anchored there, like the Tower of Pisa." -Joseph LaPalombara The Italian...

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...

THE TIMES, THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND ECONOMIST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2016'Twice I missed my stop on the Tube reading this book... this is a jewel among histories' David Aaronovitch,...

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...