History

Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this piercing work distills 3,000 years of the history of power into 48 well-explicated laws. This bold volume outlines the laws of power in their unvarnished essence, synthesizing the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, Carl von Clausewitz, and...

The author of Cod and The Basque History of the World takes an extraordinary look at an ordinary substance—salt, the only rock humans eat—and how it has shaped civilization from the very beginning. Mark Kurlansky has produced a kaleidoscope of history, a multi-layered masterpiece that blends...

A SAS soldier's journey from trainee to elite warrior fighting Islamic militants in Afghanistan, only to be betrayed by his own senior leaders at home. 'I've had more than my share of close calls. Truth is, it's fucking thrilling. But the fear can hit just as hard, especially when you see mates...

This is a new reading of the thrilling account of one of the most astonishing feats of exploration and human courage ever recorded. In August of 1914, the British ship Endurance set sail for the South Atlantic. In October, 1915, still half a continent away from its intended base, the ship was...

The truth about the bloody battles fought to establish a nation For the first time, The Australian Wars brings what for too long has been considered the historical past into connection with its reverberations in the present. It is estimated up to 100,000 people died in the frontier wars that...

Imagine you could travel back to the 14th century. What would you see? What would you smell? More to the point, where are you going to stay? And what are you going to eat....

The extraordinary story of the heroic doctor whose courage and leadership were a lifeline for thousands of Australian prisoners-of-war on the infamous Thai-Burma Railway of World War II - brilliantly told by Australia's favourite storyteller, Peter FitzSimons In September 1939, young Australian...

Own five of history's most influential books on strategy, power, war, and leadership in one complete audiobook. Together, these timeless classics have shaped the thinking of military commanders, political leaders, entrepreneurs, executives, and strategists for centuries.

READ BY THE AUTHOR The bestselling author of The Parasitic Mind shows why empathy in politics leads to civilizational collapse. What happens when a society elevates victimhood to a virtue and decides that punishment is cruel? You get the disease Dr. Gad Saad calls suicidal empathy. And the West...

33 Strategies of War is a comprehensive guide to the subtle social game of everyday life, informed by the most ingenious and effective military principles in war. It's the I-Ching of conflict, the contemporary companion to Sun Tzu's The Art of War, and is abundantly illustrated with examples...

An intellectual detective story, this history audiobook directs probing questions at orthodox history, presenting disturbing new evidence that historians have tried - but failed - to explain....

In Forging the Will to Fight, retired Special Forces Major Heston Russell delivers a raw and deeply personal memoir that cuts through the mythology of war to reveal the real human cost — and courage — of leadership in combat and beyond. From commanding elite Australian commandos in...

The story begins in 1629, when the pride of the Dutch East India Company, the Batavia, is on its maiden voyage en route from Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies, laden down with the greatest treasure to leave Holland....

Geoffrey Blainey is well-placed to introduce us to the people who have played a part and to guide us through the events which have created the Australian identity....

Now in audio, the updated and expanded edition: David Graeber's "fresh...fascinating...thought-provoking...and exceedingly timely" (Financial Times) history of debt. Here, anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom: He shows that before there was money...

On 31st October 1917, as the day's light faded, the Australian Light Horse charged against their enemy. Eight hundred men and horses galloped four miles across open country, towards the artillery, rifles and machine guns of the Turks occupying the seemingly unassailable town of Beersheba. What...

Our heroes can come from the most ordinary of places. As a shy lad growing up in country Victoria, no one in the district had any idea the man Albert Jacka would become. Albert 'Bert' Jacka was 21 when Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914. Bert soon enlisted in the Australian Imperial...

The mutiny on HMS Bounty, in the South Pacific on 28 April 1789, is one of history's truly great stories - a tale of human drama, intrigue and adventure of the highest order - and in the hands of Peter FitzSimons it comes to life as never before. Commissioned by the Royal Navy to collect...

This audiobook narrated by acclaimed archaeologist and best-selling author Eric Cline offers a breathtaking account of how the collapse of an ancient civilized world ushered in the first Dark Ages....

THE SUNDAY TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER CHOSEN BY WATERSTONES AS ONE OF THEIR BEST HISTORY BOOKS OF 2024 'Compulsive . . . A wonderful display of how modern archaeology can bring hidden histories to life' Daily Telegraph 'Gripping . . . I found it hard to put down' Evening Standard 'Another really...

A recognized classic and definitive account of its subject, The Origins of Totalitarianism traces the emergence of modern racism as an "ideological weapon for imperialism," begining with the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe in the nineteenth century and continuing through the New Imperialism...

Here in a single volume is the entire, unabridged recording of Gibbon's masterpiece....

For Australians, Kokoda is the iconic battle of World War II, yet few people know just what happened and just what our troops achieved....

On the thirtieth anniversary of John Howard coming to power, a searing analysis of the untouchable prime minister: how the ‘great economic manager’ sold our future. John Howard is often revered as one of the great Australian prime ministers (1996–2007): economically prudent, politically...

Since its publication in 1960, William L. Shirer’s monumental study of Hitler’s German empire has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of the twentieth century’s blackest hours. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich offers an unparalleled and thrillingly told examination of how...

A SAS soldier's journey from trainee to elite warrior fighting Islamic militants in Afghanistan, only to be betrayed by his own senior leaders at home. 'I've had more than my share of close calls. Truth is, it's fucking thrilling. But the fear can hit just as hard, especially when you see mates...

How often do you pop into your local grocery store to grab a few necessary items? Now, how often do you think about how amazing it is that you can do that at a moment’s notice? In truth, we seldom stop to think about all the cultural, commercial, and technological factors that have converged to give us easy access to an incredible range of food and other products, all in one place. As you will discover in The History of Grocery Stores and Food Access in America, we shouldn’t take the neighborhood grocery store for granted.

The first joint biography of the women who have shaped - and shaken - the modern Royal Family. Diana. Camilla. Catherine. Meghan. Outsiders by birth, insiders by marriage. Four women united by their decision to enter the most famous family in the world, and by their place in the centre of its...

A paradigm-shifting book that asks what the world might be like if divine feminine power had never been devalued. And shows us how it is being reclaimed. Gardener. Gossip. Spinster. Healer. Nymph . . . Witch. For centuries, the work of women was viewed with suspicion. Their knowledge – of...

Throughout history, Earth’s great rivers have lived at the heart of human life. As sources of food, and arteries of transport, trade, irrigation, travel, religious ritual, and more, rivers have not only shaped the landscapes through which they flow, they have also shaped civilization.

Instant New York Times Bestseller! New York Times Editors' Choice One of People's 15 Most Anticipated Books of Summer The Next Big Idea Club's July 2026 Must-Read Books One of the New York Times Nonfiction Everyone Will Be Reading This Summer Sunset Magazine's 15 New Books You Don't Want to Miss...

What drove a young man with a full life to sacrifice it all for his nation? Why did battle-hardened soldiers revere this young man, following him into peril, or even death? A loving son to a doting mother, a loyal friend to fellow officers, a trusted comrade to his brave soldiers, and a fearless warrior against his enemy.

Bloomsbury presents Duel of Beasts by Boyd and Beth Morrison, read by Mark Elstob. Savage beasts, fabulous treasures, perilous duels, and deadly treachery abound in this thrilling adventure novel set in medieval Spain. Málaga, Spain, 1352. Knight-errant Gerard Fox and his daring wife Willa seek...

At 9:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, an American bomber pierced the skies over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The single bomb it dropped unleashed an atomic hurricane that toppled homes, vaporized birds in flight, and carbonized humans. Three days later, a second bomb flattened the port city of...

A cup rattles, three small cubes of bone or ivory spill across a wooden board, and for one held breath the whole room leans in. A soldier's monthly pay, a merchant's profit, and occasionally a man's own freedom was riding on which faces land upward. That scene played out countless times a day throughout the ancient world, in army camps on the frozen Rhine, in the back rooms of Pompeian wine shops, in the tiled gaming chambers of senatorial villas, and in the palace itself, where more than one emperor kept a set close at hand.

On a wooden board marked with a simple grid, two players take turns setting down smooth stones, one side black and the other white. There are no dice, no cards, and no hidden information. Each stone is identical to every other stone of its color, and once placed, a stone never moves again unless it is captured and lifted from the board. A player claims territory by surrounding empty points with stones, captures enemy stones by surrounding them, and at the end counts the ground held. That is nearly the whole of the game.

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. When wealthy banker Alexander Holder stumbles breathlessly into 221B Baker Street, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are confronted with a case that threatens national disgrace and destroys a family’s peace. Holder has accepted an invaluable national...

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. From the memoirs of Dr. John Watson comes *The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor*, another captivating case featuring Sherlock Holmes, London’s preeminent consulting detective. Lord Robert St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, arrives at 221B...

The Japanese experience of war from the late-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century presents a stunning example of the meteoric rise and shattering fall of a great power. As Japan modernized and became the one non-European great power, its leaders concluded that an empire on the Asian mainland...

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. *The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle* is one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s most charming, festive Sherlock Holmes mysteries, set on Christmas days in Victorian London, blending brilliant deductive reasoning, accidental treasure, and unexpected mercy. The...

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. *The Man with the Twisted Lip* is a clever, twist-laden Sherlock Holmes mystery from Arthur Conan Doyle’s *The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes*, blending London’s shadowy opium dens, deceptive disguises, and a startling secret identity. When Dr...

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. *The Adventure of the Speckled Band* ranks among Arthur Conan Doyle’s most celebrated and terrifying Sherlock Holmes mysteries, a masterclass in deduction, suspense and creeping horror set in the shadowy Surrey countryside. Early one morning, a...

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. *A Case of Identity* is another razor-sharp Sherlock Holmes mystery from Arthur Conan Doyle’s *The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes*, a masterful study of deception, disguise and human self-delusion. At 221B Baker Street, a distressed young typist named...

Richard V. Lowney Jr. spent his career building software that millions of people used without knowing his name. The other thing he was building, without realizing it, is what kept him alive. He grew up in one of Boston's toughest neighborhoods, the son of a factory worker and the grandson of an Irish immigrant who died on the Charlestown docks. He enlisted in the Army during Vietnam, worked with early computing systems in Cold War Germany, and came home to a country that had changed while he was gone.

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. *The Five Orange Pips* stands as one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s bleakest, most haunting Sherlock Holmes mysteries, a chilling tale of ancestral doom, secret societies, and relentless transatlantic vengeance from *The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes*. On a...

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. *The Red-Headed League* stands among Arthur Conan Doyle’s most clever, celebrated Sherlock Holmes mysteries, a masterwork of misdirection and brilliant deductive reasoning. Dr. Watson recounts the strange case of Jabez Wilson, a portly pawnbroker with...

In Israel on Trial: Examining the History, the Evidence, and the Law, United States District Judge Roy K. Altman brings legal rigor to the world’s most contentious debate. Applying courtroom-tested standards—burden of proof, corroboration, chain of custody—he examines claims of colonialism, apartheid, and genocide with dispassionate precision.

Johannes Vermeer has fascinated a growing number of 21st century viewers with his most intimate depictions of the nature of human existence. The formal perfection of his compositions and the precision of his painting technique, expressing his fantastic narrative ability and accurate realism, have become a quintessential characteristic of the Dutch Golden Age of painting. Nearly 400 years later, Vermeer is still celebrated for his incomparable sense of timelessness, human dignity and unprecedented talent for creating luminosity and purity of color in his scenes.

'EPIC' Financial Times 'PERCEPTIVE' The Sunday Times 'BLISSFUL' Daily Telegraph 'FASCINATING' Independent on Sunday 'TERRIFIC' Henry Winter 'EXCELLENT' Simon Kuper The fascinating story of football in Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, from the award-winning author of...

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. To Sherlock Holmes, she is always the woman. Among all the tales of Sherlock Holmes, A Scandal in Bohemia stands as one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s most beloved and iconic adventures—the story that introduces Irene Adler, the only person ever to outwit...