Secondhand History Books

900 years ago, Christian Europe was seized by a fever that changed the world forever. Inspired by a Pope who offered rewards on earth and a certain place in Paradise...

In the autumn of 1846 the Navajo warrior Narbona looked down upon the small town of Santa Fe, the stronghold of the Mexican settlers he had been fighting his whole...

On a parched evening in the Philippines 53 years ago, 511 American POWs were saved from almost certain death. A force of elite US troops from the Sixth Ranger Battalion...

The Battle of the Somme, fought between July and November 1916, was among the bloodiest conflicts of all time. The aim was to end the stalemate on the Western Front...

'Victorian Sensation' sheds light on the Victorians' fascination with celebrity culture and their obsession with gruesome and explicit reportage of murders and sex scandals. With a vivid cast of characters,...

'Magisterial and eloquent' SUNDAY TELEGRAPHIn this critically acclaimed book, Paul Johnson delves deep into the 4,000-year history of the Jews: a race of awe-inspiring endurance, steadfast homogeneity and loyalty and,...

Of all the great movements of population to and from the United States, the least heralded is the migration, in the depths of the Depression of the nineteen-thirties, of thousands...

We Are Iran is a seamlessly edited multi-voiced portrait of contemporary Iran, translated from Farsi, using that nation's weblogs as its primary source. Iran has more web diarists than most...

From the admiralty to the miner's strike, from the Battle of Britain to eventual victory over Nazi Germany, Churchill oversaw some of the most important events the world has ever...

This account of the Valley of the Kings brings together its art, archaelogy and history in one volume arranged thematically. Famous as the burial place of the great New Kingdom...

While Europe was still divided into a patchwork of feudal states, there emerged from the East a vast empire that eventually spanned the breadth of Asia. It had been forged...

The first volume in this beautifully illustrated and highly acclaimed economic and social history of the world from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution covers the richness and complexity...

Napoleon Bonaparte's character and achievements have always divided critics and commentators. In this compelling new biography Frank McLynn draws on the most recent scholarship and throws a brilliant light on...

The individual volumes interlock to form a continuous narrative, but each volume also stands alone as a distinctive study of a major period of European history. Emphasis is placed on...

Backed by a wealth of new research, John Cornwell tells for the first time the story of the World War II career of Eugenio Pacelli, the man who was Pope...

This book guides students through all the central historical concepts, theories, methods and problems confronting those engaged in the serious study of history.

This book is the winner of the 1999 duff cooper prize. 'Brilliant .. this book must be read and re-read' - Neal Ascherson. 'A hundred years ago, enlightened people in...

The chronicle of the first half of the 17th century is an account of the conflict between Charles Stuart and Oliver Cromwell and the beliefs that impelled them. King and...

The concluding volume of the trilogy charts the growth of the world economy from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century concentrating on the human activity that underlies the business of...

Far-reaching political changes in South Africa have re-ignited much interest in Robben Island, particularly as the South African President, Nelson Mandela, was imprisoned there for so long. This is an...

George V stood for order and tradition in an age of tumultuous change. Grandson of Queen Victoria, he was pragmatic and forthright but also a man of sensibility. This study...

It began with a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington DC, on 17 June 1972. Bob Woodward, a journalist for the Washington Post, was called into the...

A unique and poignant record of a club created for heroes. There are just a handful of men and women alive today who served and fought with the Special Forces...

Since its first publication in 1961 E.H. Carr's What is History? has established itself as the classic introduction to the subject. Ranging across topics such as historical objectivity, society and...

Len Deighton's skill as a novelist is used to show how the human factor influenced every twist and turn of this close-fought battle. His encyclopedic knowledge of technology makes clear...

Members of the Polish Air Force fought through the defeat of their own country in 1939 and then alongside the French until the fall of France the following year, when...

The focus of Fernand Braudel's great work is the Mediterranean world in the second half of the sixteenth century, but Braudel ranges back in history to the world of Odysseus...

14 August 1945. As Emperor Hirohito recorded a message of surrender for the Japanese people, rebel troops commanded by high-ranking officers from War Minister Anami(1)s staff burst into the Imperial...

Hitler came very close to winning the Second World War in June 1941. Despite obvious preparations, his invasion of Russia caught the Red Army by surprise and almost destroyed it...

The true story of the Getty family as featured in the TV series Trust and the movie All the Money in the WorldBoardroom battles, sex, money, drugs, power, crime, tragedy,...

In the second volume of his acclaimed new history of the Second World War, James Holland examines the momentous turning points of 1941-1943: Hitler's invasion of Russia; America's entry into...

The Boer War of 1899-1902 was an epic of heroism and bungling, cunning and barbarism, with an extraordinary cast of characters - including Churchill, Rhodes, Conan Doyle, Smuts, Kipling, Gandhi,...

Shows Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Katharine Howard and Catherine Parr to be more than mere victims of King Henry's obsession with a male heir....

How has the world changed in the last century? This text looks back across 100 years of turbulence, Clive Ponting providing a reassessment of what the 20th century has meant...

During the period of this volume, from 1688 to 1815, three revolutions profoundly influenced mankind and all occurred within the space of a 100 years and all led to war...

This controversial study of Cromwell's notorious Irish campaign is published on the 350th anniversary of Cromwell's death. The author's unique opinions are shaped by his home town of Drogheda, the...

This survey of European history covers a period of one and a half centuries which witnessed the beginnings of the contemporary world. In his account of the economic, social, intellectual...

This unique book tries to capture every aspect of this violent and turbulent period of European history. It portrays Napoleonic Europe in all its aspects - political, cultural, military, commercial...

The focus of Fernand Braudel's great work is the Mediterranean world in the second half of the sixteenth century, but Braudel ranges back in history to the world of Odysseus...

It is a story like no other: an epic of endurance against destruction, of creativity in oppression, joy amidst grief, the affirmation of life against the steepest of odds. It...