Europe

The British Crown is in crisis, with constitutional threats at home and abroad. Since their infamous 'Megxit' split from the Royal Family, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have dominated global headlines. Ferociously controversial, not least for demanding privacy while seeking the spotlight.

The name Captain James Cook is one of the most recognisable in Australian history - an almost mythic figure who is often discussed, celebrated, reviled and debated. But who was the real James Cook? This Yorkshire farm boy would go on to become the foremost mariner, scientist, navigator and...

'The book that really held me, in fact, obsessed me, was Rubicon . . . This is narrative history at its best. Bloody and labyrinthine political intrigue and struggle, brilliant oratory, amazing feats of conquest and cruelty' Ian McEwan, Books of the Year, Guardian 'Re-evaluating Rome for a new...

The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in 25 years than the Romans did in 400....

Winner of the Audie Award 2022 for Best History/Biography Audiobook. Earphones Award Winner 2021. A road trip book with a difference. Stars of Outlander - Sam Heughan & Graham McTavish - explore Scotland, a land of raw beauty, poetry, feuding, music, history, and warfare. Narrated by Sam Heughan...

A major study of the collapse of the Soviet Union - showing how Gorbachev's misguided reforms led to its demise In 1945, the Soviet Union controlled half of Europe and was a founding member of the United Nations. By 1991, it had an army four million strong, 5,000 nuclear-tipped missiles, and was...

The book is full of humorous anecdote and rich characterization, and paints a vivid picture of 18th-century London, peopled by prominent personalities of the time....

The epic story of the Boer War and Harry 'Breaker' Morant: drover, horseman, bush poet - murderer or hero? Most Australians have heard of the Boer War and of Harry 'Breaker' Morant, a figure who rivals Ned Kelly as an archetypal Australian folk hero. But Morant was a complicated man. Born in...

The war on the Eastern Front from 1941 to 1945 was the bloodiest combat theater in the bloodiest war in history. Oberleutnant Friedrich Wilhelm Sander experienced this bloodshed firsthand when serving with the 11th Panzer-Regiment. This regiment made up the core of the 6th Panzer-Division, one...

In the early 1970s, Britain seemed to be tottering on the brink of the abyss....

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 lively and engaging narrative history showing the common threads in the cultures that gave birth to our own....

Peter Ratcliffe served in the SAS for 25 years. Blooded in Oman in the 1970s, he also saw action in Northern Ireland, in the Falklands War, and in the Gulf campaign....

The incredible true story of one of the most extraordinary and inspirational prison breaks in Australian history. New York, 1874. Members of the Clan-na-Gael - agitators for Irish freedom from the English yoke - hatch a daring plan to free six Irish political prisoners from the most remote...

The definitive account of Germany's malign transformation under Hitler's total rule and the implacable march to war. This magnificent second volume of Richard J. Evans's three-volume history of Nazi Germany was hailed by Benjamin Schwartz of The Atlantic Monthly as "the definitive...

In this magisterial and acclaimed history, Anne Applebaum offers the first fully documented portrait of the Gulag....

The eagerly awaited final volume in Pulitzer Prize-winner Rick Atkinson's New York Times bestselling Liberation Trilogy. It is the twentieth century’s unrivaled epic: at a staggering price, the United States and its allies liberated Europe and vanquished Hitler. In the first two volumes of his...

In the early 1970s, Britain seemed to be tottering on the brink of the abyss....

Best-selling historian David Hill tells the story of the first three decades of Britain's earliest colony in Australia in a fresh and compelling way. The British plan to settle Australia was a high-risk venture. We now take it for granted that the first colony was the basis of one of the most...

A rich, complex and engaging account of Cook's voyages across the Pacific, from actor and raconteur Sam Neill. Captain James Cook first set sail to the Pacific in 1768, just over 250 years ago. These vast waters, one third of the earth's surface, were uncharted but not unknown. A rich diversity...

Following the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq in 2003, the SAS launched one of the most intense and secretive operations in its history: Task Force Black.

'A rich treasure-chest of a book' ANTHONY HOWARD, Sunday Telegraph 'A spectacular history of the sixties' NICK COHEN, Observer 'Sandbrook's book is a pleasure to read ... he is a master of the human touch' RICHARD DAVENPORT-HINES, TLS 'Rivetingly readable' GODFREY SMITH, Sunday Times From the...

Set in the court of Urbino in 1507, Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier presents an invaluable look at court life and culture during the Renaissance. Over four nights of dialogue, the book explores the key question, ‘What should a courtier be like?’ Listen for more....

Each lecture will give you a refreshing new understanding of what made the British Empire both great in its achievements and vulnerable to its eventual downfall....

At one time, Corrie ten Boom would have laughed at the idea that she had a story to tell.....

The British Crown is in crisis, with constitutional threats at home and abroad. Since their infamous 'Megxit' split from the Royal Family, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have dominated global headlines. Ferociously controversial, not least for demanding privacy while seeking the spotlight, the Sussexes have remained a subject of gripping fascination for both supporters and cynics alike. Both camps are united on one platform: what is the endgame? Fighting to preserve their royal titles and privileges, In their attempts to create a Sussex brand the couple have fuelled bitter hostility.

In 1909, a thin, pale young man stood on a street corner in Vienna selling painted postcards to tourists. He couldn't hold down a job. He couldn't maintain a friendship. He was sleeping in a homeless shelter and arguing with drifters about politics nobody cared about. Thirty years later, he controlled most of Europe. Sixty million people would die because of his decisions. How does that happen? This isn't another book about the war. It's not about the battles or the tanks or the maps with arrows on them. You can get that anywhere. This is an audiobook about the mind of a madman.

A comprehensive and detailed look into the Scottish Highlands. Alistair Moffat tells the extraordinary story of the Highlands in the most detailed book ever written about this remarkable part of Scotland. This is the story of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland as it has never been told before...

El autor ahonda en aspectos poco estudiados de nuestra Guerra civil, como la lealtad geográfica, la frecuente comunicación entre las trincheras o la importancia de las canciones. Es la curiosa crónica de los frecuentes intercambios de todo tipo entre ambos bandos.

Los años 50 constituyen la época más desconocida de la historia reciente de España. Entre los terribles años 40 de la posguerra y los cambios que trajeron los 60. Manuel Espín acude al rescate de esos tiempos en La España resignada (1952-1960) para devolvernos la imagen de un país que quiere dejar atrás los terribles recuerdos de la guerra y la posguerra para empezar a mirar hacia el futuro con esperanza.

Diarmaid MacCulloch, one of the foremost scholars of the English Reformation, traces Thomas Cranmer from his east-Midland roots through his twenty-year career as a conventionally conservative Cambridge don. He shows how Cranmer was recruited to the coterie around Henry VIII that was trying to...

Uno de los aspectos muy poco conocidos del 25 de abril portugués es la relación que tuvo con los militares demócratas españoles. En este libro se repasa la historia común de los militares españoles y portugueses, sus contactos clandestinos, el apoyo que los capitanes de abril dieron a la UMD, así como los viajes de unos y otros. Una historia común que, en gran medida, ha permanecido desconocida hasta ahora.

El silencio no es la simple ausencia de ruido. Hace posible la fortaleza interior donde los grandes escritores, pensadores, eruditos y creyentes se han recogido durante siglos. Requisito indispensable para la contemplación, la fantasía, la plegaria y la creación, el silencio es la íntima fuente de la que mana el lenguaje, e impregna nuestros espacios más privados y sagrados, del dormitorio a la catedral.

Para ilustrar a ambos grupos, en diálogo con todos, escribe esta monumental obra el medievalista Rafael Sánchez Saus, que se sumerge en la Antigüedad y la Edad Media buscando la huella milenaria de España. Una identidad que ya era reconocible en los tiempos visigodos y que, lejos de deshacerse con la invasión islámica, tomó cuerpo entre la resistencia cristiana de la Península. Este libro profundiza en el largo proceso por el que ha caminado la nación española hasta que las Cortes de Cádiz le dieron su primera forma política soberana.

Josef Mengele, el médico del horror de Auschwitz, murió en libertad. Tras la guerra huyó a Sudamérica y pasó sus últimos 18 años en Brasil, oculto bajo una identidad falsa y protegido por una red de simpatizantes nazis. Con un estilo vibrante y riguroso, Betina Antón reconstruye esta historia real con acceso a archivos secretos de la Mossad, entrevistas a quienes le dieron cobijo y documentos nunca antes publicados. Tras la pista de Mengele es una obra imprescindible para entender los vacíos de justicia en la historia reciente, la persistencia del odio y la fragilidad de la memoria.

Britain may have had more than its fair share of kings, but King Edward I is most certainly one for the record books. Edward I was a foundational figure in every sense. It was Edward who conquered Wales and incorporated it into England. It was Edward who set the stage for the conquest of Scotland—a brutal campaign that would define the final years of his reign and ignite centuries of conflict.

The remarkable, moving story of Prince Philip's mother by eminent biographer Hugo Vickers, updated in this new edition - for fans of Kingmaker and The Lives and Deaths of the Princesses of Hesse Princess Alice, mother of Prince Phillip, was something of a mystery figure even within her own...

The story of Italian art is one of the greatest in human history: a golden thread that begins in ancient Rome, weaves through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and continues to shape the way we understand beauty, faith, and the world today. From the Etruscans’ vivid tomb frescoes to Michelangelo’s masterpieces on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel to Caravaggio’s dramatic use of light and shadow, Italian artists have created works that define Western Civilization.

A new history of slavery and the French Revolution When the French revolutionaries passed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen in 1789, they immediately faced a burning question: did that document's first article—"Men are born and remain free and equal in rights"—apply to the 800...

Join acclaimed travel writer and incurably curious hiker Tom Chesshyre in this celebration of the Peak District, Britain’s first National Park, on its 75th anniversary 'Funny, fair and honest, and effortlessly readable' Matthew Parris In the heart of England lies a fascinating landscape of...

Otto von Bismarck was not the kind of man who waited for history to happen. He made it happen, and he didn't much care whose feelings got hurt along the way. Bismarck was the pragmatic Prussian statesman who engineered Germany creation as a unified nation through Realpolitik—the unsentimental art of doing whatever it takes to get results. While other politicians speechified and moralized, Bismarck was already three moves ahead, turning all of Europe into his personal chessboard.

Über mehr als tausend Jahre hinweg gehörte die Republik Venedig, bekannt als La Serenissima, zu den außergewöhnlichsten Staaten der europäischen Geschichte. Aus den sumpfigen Inseln der Lagune von Venedig entstand eine mächtige Seerepublik, die ein weitreichendes Handels- und Seeimperium aufbaute und über Jahrhunderte hinweg den Handel im Mittelmeerraum dominierte.

In April 2015, as London slowed down for the Easter holiday, a team of aging ex-gangsters crept into the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Company and pulled off a meticulously planned vault raid. Using old-school tools and street-hardened experience, they drilled through two feet of concrete and walked away with over £14 million in jewels, gold, and cash. But it wasn’t long before the law caught up—thanks to modern surveillance, carelessness, and old rivalries.

A memoir of a child's forced relocation to Siberia under Stalin's Gulag system reveals the potential for true human kindness in the face of extraordinary hardship. In April of 1940, six-year-old Ida woke to the sound of pounding on her door. Soviet soldiers forcibly packed her and her mother onto a train with thousands of their neighbors and deported them to remote Siberia, leaving them stranded to survive the brutal winter in subhuman conditions.

Die Kolonialisierung Indiens im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert war ursprünglich keine nationale Bestrebung Großbritanniens, sondern das Werk eines gewinnorientierten Unternehmens mit Sitz in London, das nur auf die Bereicherung seiner Investoren ausgerichtet war. Der völlig beispiellose und erbarmungslose Aufstieg der British East India Company zur dominierenden Welthandelsmacht wird hier in einem großen Panorama mitreißend nacherzählt.

The Crown meets The West Wing in this illuminating history that chronicles the largely unknown story of Queen Elizabeth II’s relationship with thirteen American presidents, from Harry S. Truman to Donald J. Trump, and changed world history. No American or foreign leader has met with as many...

In einem historischen Meisterwerk erzählt er eine verwickelte Geschichte voller Widersprüche, die mit der Unterstützung der bolschewistischen Revolution durch das kaiserliche Deutschland beginnt und 1941 mit dem Überfall auf die Sowjetunion endet. Wenn ein kurzfristiger Vorteil lockte, waren beide Seiten zu jeder Prinzipienlosigkeit bereit.

In 1949, the year of the Berlin airlift and the founding of the two post-war German states, Elisabeth Kusian (nurse, black marketeer, morphine and methamphetamine addict, and pathological liar) garroted and dismembered two people in a mini crime spree. Her actions both fascinated and terrified...

A spirited, poignant history of the seven daughters of the great Empress Maria Theresia—among them, Queen Marie Antoinette of France—tracing their lives as they balanced dynastic duty with personal ambition in a time of revolutionary cataclysm “Others make war; you, happy Austria, marry...

George Eliot pushed the boundaries of fiction and of Victorian society. She was an extraordinary woman whose unconventional life meant that she was judged harshly by family, friends, and strangers. Eliot wanted to draw attention to the feelings and motivations of ordinary people, so that we...