World

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....

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...

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

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...

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...

When Autobiography of a Yogi first appeared in 1946, it was acclaimed as a landmark work in its field....

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Guns, Germs and Steel examines the rise of civilization and the issues its development has raised throughout history. Having done field work in New Guinea for more than 30 years, Jared Diamond presents the geographical and ecological factors that have shaped...

In an attempt to appeal to the Medici family during the Italian Renaissance, Machiavelli outlines the way to acquire and retain political power, and how great men should behave in a princely government....

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...

Harry Potter: A History of Magic reveals some of the hidden stories behind real-world magic and explores some of J.K. Rowling's magical inventions alongside their folkloric, cultural and historical forebears....

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

Living and dying with bravery and honor is at the heart of Hagakure, a series of texts written by an 18th-century samurai, Yamamoto Tsunetomo....

Even after deciphering its hieroglyphs, and marveling at its scarabs, mummies, obelisks, and sphinxes, Egyptian civilization remains one of history's most mysterious....

A bold and all-embracing exploration of the nature and progress of knowledge from one of today's great thinkers. Throughout history, mankind has struggled to understand life's mysteries, from the mundane to the seemingly miraculous. In this important new book, David Deutsch, an award-winning...

Every night, above our heads, a drama of epic proportions is playing out. Diamond planets, zombie stars, black holes heavier than a billion Suns. The cast of characters is extraordinary, and each one has its own incredible story to tell. We once thought of our Earth as unique, but we have now...

Girt. No word could better capture the essence of Australia.... In this hilarious history, David Hunt reveals the truth of Australia's past....

Douglas Mawson, born in 1882 and knighted in 1914, was Australia’s greatest Antarctic explorer.

When Patrick Durack left Ireland for Australia in 1853, he was to found a dynasty of pioneers, and build an empire of cattle-land across the great stretches of Australia....

Most of us have a limited understanding of the powerful role economics has played in shaping human civilization. This makes economic history a vital lens through which to think....

What if human cloning isn’t a modern discovery, but an ancient technology rediscovered? Long before modern science, civilisations like the Sumerians and the Anunnaki may have practiced genetic manipulation, creating humanity as engineered slaves for labour and obedience, not children of gods.

In the early days of April 1941, the 14,000 Australian forces garrisoned in the Libyan town of Tobruk were told to expect reinforcements and supplies within eight weeks...

In The WEIRDest People in the World, Joseph Henrich draws on cutting-edge research in anthropology, psychology, economics, and evolutionary biology to explore these questions and more....

From Graham Hancock, best-selling author of Fingerprints of the Gods, comes a mesmerizing book that takes us on a captivating underwater voyage to find the ruins of a lost civilization that's been hidden for thousands of years beneath the world's oceans. While Graham Hancock is no stranger...

From the creator of the award-winning podcast series The History of Rome and Revolutions comes the fascinating history of the bloody battles, political machinations, and human drama that set the stage for the fall of the Roman Republic. "Remarkably engaging." —Washington Post The Roman...

Whether ancient, crumbling parchments or generated by Google, maps tell us things we want to know, not only about our current location but about the world in general....

Twenty years ago, paleoanthropologists confidently asserted that there were just two species at the origin of modern humans: Homo sapiens, our direct ancestors, and the Neanderthals. Both had evolved from the earlier Homo erectus. When Homo sapiens began to migrate out of Africa on a large scale around 70,000 years ago, they met Neanderthals in Europe and western Asia, and the two species lived peacefully together and even interbred. Over time, the Neanderthals died out, though we still don't know precisely why, and that left Homo sapiens as the single surviving human species on the planet.

Discover the remarkable history of the Lewis and Clark Expedition... In 1800, less than 25 years after it became an independent nation, the United States faced a new threat on its western border. To the west lay a vast area known as the Louisiana Territory, which was under Spanish control. The United States had negotiated treaties with Spain that allowed small numbers of US settlers and traders to enter the territory, to use the Mississippi River for navigation, and to trade through the Spanish port of New Orleans.

From Napoleon to nuclear war, War Is Hell unravels the brutal rise of total war and its devastating impact on soldiers and civilians alike. General William Tecumseh Sherman said it best during the American Civil War: “War is hell” – for soldiers as well as for civilians. As a pioneer and...

Sir Patrick Moore’s Journey to the Stars is a classic space documentary series that takes viewers on a journey through the solar system, historical space exploration, and deep space phenomena. Hosted by the beloved English astronomer, the series explores the Moon, planets, the Apollo programme, and deep space objects.

Sir Patrick Moore’s Journey to the Stars is a classic space documentary series that takes viewers on a journey through the solar system, historical space exploration, and deep space phenomena. Hosted by the beloved English astronomer, the series explores the Moon, planets, the Apollo programme, and deep space objects.

In The Missing Key, Matthew LaCroix uncovers that code and reconstructs the blueprint it points to—a revelation that challenges conventional timelines and transforms what we think we know about human origins. The culmination of more than a decade of research and two years of field investigation, this work follows the author from the archives of the Penn Museum to the ancient sites of Türkiye, Cambodia, South America, and Egypt, where the final pieces came together on the Giza Plateau.

Bloomsbury presents… Shipping Container by Craig Martin read by Matthew Biddulph Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. The shipping container is all around: whizzing by on the highway, trundling past on rails, unloading...

What is 'Central Europe'? Where do its borders lie? Does it even exist? Attempts to define it usually yield more questions than answers. But perhaps the wrong questions are being asked. Luka Ivan Jukic disentangles the enigma of Central Europe through its birth, death, and rebirth. Today, Poland...

The first biography to rescue the true story of Josiah Henson, restoring to history his role in the Underground Railroad Josiah Henson led a fascinating life―from the plantation fields of Maryland to the Georgetown Market to the plantations of Kentucky to escaping to freedom in Canada to being...

The ancient Greeks were exceptional and they were consequential. This innovative, engrossingly written book addresses head-on the problematic question of the Greek Miracle. It will appeal to anyone interested in the ancient world and its modern meaning. Reviel Netz boldly argues that the...

How did a civilisation that once seemed destined to grow forever begin to shrink? The Demography of the West opens on the Swan coastal plain — three displacements that are not the same story: First Nations dispossession, a settler family priced out of Fremantle, and a Perth suburb reshaped after the pandemic by migration, housing pressure, and birth rates below replacement. From that human scale, Nathan Webb widens the lens to Western Europe, North America, and Oceania. This is narrative history, not a prophecy of doom.

Barry Smith grew up in Roseburg, Oregon. R.C. Good, the main character in World WWII History, taught him to fly and soloed him on his 16th birthday in July of 1966. Barry's early writings caught the attention of his mentor and Good invited him to attend several VF-17 squadron reunions on the USS Hornet in Alameda, California.

The terrifying true story of a fight for survival for 28 hours in shark-infested waters. October, 8, 2022. Three friends are fishing for red snapper when their boat, tied to an oil rig, begins taking on water and sinks 15 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico. Suddenly, the three men find themselves...

A brilliant foray into the nature of information, of history, and of making meaning in the face of death and decay. Our lives are collections of information—from mundane official documents, poignant family photos, and random artifacts to the cues embodied in our genes. Never is this more...

Narration of the story of the struggle of the African people from the slave dungeons, through the middle passage, the civil rights movement and the pan-African Congresses to the independence of an African country Ghana, with benefit of hindsight of the Ancient African civilization. An old man tells the story in the form of Letters to an African child named Ayesha.