Secondhand History Books

'Gritty, funny and rich with authenticity.' - Robert Olen Butler 'Sam Halpert shines his light on a well-worn subject and gives us material glowing with stoic humour and a crusty...

In 1307 King Philip the Fair of France and Pope Clement V brought to trial one of the most powerful institutions of the medieval world: the Order of the Knights...

In December 1953 French paratroopers, who had been searching for the elusive Vietnamese army, were quickly isolated by them and forced to retreat into their out-gunned and desolate jungle base-a...

An illustrated history of Britain since the Roman occupation, which traces its political, social, economic and cultural development.

A flavorful account of New York City politics during the 1920s Jazz Age centering on the intersecting careers of the city's popular "Night Mayor," Jimmy Walker, and the state's patrician...

This is the story of the Venerable Palden Gyatso who, in 1992, was released after 33 years of incarceration in Chinese prisons in Tibet, and fled to India, bringing with...

Letters from Burma - an unforgettable collection from the Nobel Peace prize winner Aung San Suu KyiIn these astonishing letters, Aung San Suu Kyi reaches out beyond Burma's borders to...

A vivid account of the fierce, honourable, death-obsessed, profoundly religious Aztecs on the eve of the Spanish conquest. Even in the darkest symbolism of their blood-drenched worship they appear as...

In this revised and expanded introduction to the Maya, Professor Coe incorporates the latest ideas and research in a fast-changing field. Spectacular tomb discoveries at the city of Copan reveal...

Francis Fukuyama used to regard himself as a 'neocon'. But, attacking the right-wing policymakers he had previously worked with, he argues here that the Bush administration, in the war in...

Everyone has heard of the Atlantic Trade, in which millions of Africans were transported to the Americas by Europeans to work as slaves. However, there is another slave trade, previously...

The first people of South Africa, Stone-Age hunters and gatherers from the mountains and the arid flats of the interior, did not survive the arrival of settlers from Europe. Within...

Recounting stories and legends from the dark centuries of British prehistory to the 9th century AD - tales of giants and fairies, druids and saints, King Lear, King Arthur and...

In the recent past, a working knowledge of the Maya script has been confined to epigraphers, art historians and other specialists. Its very unfamiliarity to the general public, and the...

Homosexuality is still taboo in the Arab countries. While clerics denounce it as a heinous sin, newspapers, reluctant to address it directly, talk cryptically of 'shameful acts' and 'deviant behaviour'....

Civil wars pose some of the most difficult problems in the world today and the United Nations is the organization generally called upon to bring and sustain peace. Lise Morje...

'...Brune's book is a timely reminder that despite the warmest alliances, nations sometimes have to stand up and save themselves.' - The Weekend Australian Financial Review'...A Bastard of a Place...

'An absorbingly creepy travelogue through the corridors, tunnels and basements of our most famous cultural repository. With Noah Angell as our guide, the British Museum becomes a haunted prison filled...

Revisit the definitive book on Pearl Harbor in advance of the 78th anniversary (December 7, 2019) of the "date which will live in infamy"At 7:53 a.m., December 7, 1941, America's...

'Sensationally good ... A riveting story, the real-life spooks and spies far more compelling than anything you will see on the screen ... history doesn't come more fascinating than this'...

The village pump was once the focal point of rural life, providing the only water supply to communities and offering a place in town squares and village greens for people...

Over 2,000 years of history seen through the eyes of 50 extraordinary women. Was Jane Austen a fan of her own work? What did Harriet Tubman want to tell Abraham...

The most successful British general until the advent of Napoleon, John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, was also a successful, if devious politcian, and a commanding figure both on...

In 1986 the author, an ordinary Nottingham social worker and mother of two, received a letter from a woman asking for help to trace her parents. She claimed that at...