Secondhand History Books

In this celebrated, landmark history of the Balkans, Misha Glenny investigates the roots of the bloodshed, invasions and nationalist fervour that have come to define our understanding of the south-eastern...

This is the first biography of the fateful relationship between Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. It was the defining relationship of their lives, and marked the intersection of...

Catherine de Medici was half French, half Italian. Orphaned in infancy, she was the sole legitimate heiress to the Medici family fortune. Married at fourteen to the future Henri II...

In the two centuries that this volume covers - between 1485 and 1688 - many of the landmark events described are factors that cemented the character of the nation, and...

The contemporary geography of modern Europe is the result of the interaction of many and often violent historical processes, which have combined to produce a very diverse patterning of place...

Not all history is recorded in school textbooks or cast into towering monuments that shape city skylines. Quite often the most intriguing (and most bizarre) bits are forgotten and fall...

Shows how the courts functioned, how they interrelated, and why they were the main cultural centres of Europe.

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...

The war in Afghanistan is over ten years old. It has cost countless lives and hundreds of billions of pounds. Politicians talk of progress, but the violence is worse than...

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...

Aesthete, sensualist, bookworm, politician of Machiavellian cunning: Francois Mitterrand was a man of exceptional gifts and exceptional flaws who, during his fourteen years as President, strove to drag his tradition-bound...

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,...