World

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...

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

Born in 1894, Facey lived the rough frontier life of a sheep farmer, survived the gore of Gallipoli, raised a family through the Depression and spent 60 years with his beloved wife, Evelyn....

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...

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...

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...

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

The definitive history of the Vikings - from arts and culture to politics and cosmology - by a distinguished archaeologist with decades of expertise The Viking Age - from 750 to 1050 saw an unprecedented expansion of the Scandinavian peoples into the wider world. As traders and raiders...

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....

Brought to you by Penguin. What can humankind’s rich history of radical revolts teach us about the power of disobedience to tackle the climate crisis? What inspiration could we take from eighteenth century Japan to create a regenerative economy today? How might understanding the origins of...

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...

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....

With all the skills of the master storyteller that he is, Jim Haynes exposes some of the great myths of Australian history. Did you know that Portuguese and Spanish explorers probably found the east coast of Australia before Captain Cook, and that the Rum Rebellion was not caused by rum? And...

In this Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, historian Barbara Tuchman brings to life the people and events that led up to World War I. This was the last gasp of the Gilded Age, of Kings and Kaisers and Czars, of pointed or plumed hats, colored uniforms, and all the pomp and romance that went along...

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...

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....

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...

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. In 1177 BC, marauding groups known only as the "Sea Peoples" invaded Egypt. The pharaoh's army and...

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

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...

Paul Rosolie’s extraordinary adventure in the uncharted tributaries of the Western Amazon - a tale of discovery that vividly captures the awe, beauty, and isolation of this endangered land....

The foundation for all modern economic thought and political economy, The Wealth of Nations is the magnum opus of Scottish economist Adam Smith, who introduces the world to the very idea of economics and capitalism in the modern sense of the words. Smith details his argument in five books: Book...

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....

Islam has been one of the most powerful religious, social, and political forces in history. Over the last 1,400 years, from origins in Arabia, a succession of Muslim polities, and later empires expanded to control territories and peoples that ultimately stretched from southern France to East...

New discoveries about the textile arts reveal women's unexpectedly influential role in ancient societies. Twenty thousand years ago, women were making and wearing the first clothing created from spun fibers. In fact, right up to the Industrial Revolution the fiber arts were an enormous...

In the autumn of 2011, while a civil war ripped across Libya and the long reign of dictator Muammar Gaddafi came apart in gunfire, a team of archaeologists in England announced that they had located more than 100 lost towns and villages in the middle of the Sahara. Making it all the more amazing, they had spotted the ancient settlements from space.

The year 753 B.C. has been immortalized as the birth year of Rome, the Eternal City, which according to legend was founded by the brothers Romulus and Remus. When Remus was killed, allegedly by Romulus or one of his followers, Romulus's new city found itself with a male-to-female ratio that was severely unbalanced, and the Romans on Palatine Hill had trouble spawning the next generation.

A new history of the Renaissance's greatest feat of exploration: Sir Walter Ralegh's search for the legendary city of El Dorado, by New York Times bestselling author David Gibbins. In 1594, English adventurer Sir Walter Ralegh heard the story of a lost city in South America from a Spanish...

What is history really for? In History, acclaimed historian Hendrik Willem van Loon delivers a sharp, witty, and provocative examination of the way Americans understand—or fail to understand—the past. Writing in the aftermath of the First World War, Van Loon challenges the dry, academic...

Explore a hilarious trivia adventure where historical bloopers and bizarre mishaps create pure comedy. Skip the boring dates and stuffy battles to witness humanitys most chaotic, entertaining mistakes. This fast-paced, laugh-out-loud journey proves our ancestors were just as confused, petty, and...

Andreas Englisch and his son Leo once again delve into the mysteries of the Eternal City, drawing us to its hidden corners and concealed treasures. The legacy of an elderly woman sets father and son on the trail of a series of enigmatic places linked by a single, unsettling belief: to this day...

For more than 10,000 years, cats have prowled at the edges of human life. But, starting only a few decades ago, hundreds of millions of them became pets. In Cats, Rod Phillips shares a sweeping cultural and social history of felines, tracing their shifting place across societies and centuries, from ancient Egypt's revered hunters to Europe's suspected familiars of witches and from shipboard rodent controllers to cherished internet icons.

Witness the dawn of a cultural revolution where radical art and cutthroat politics shattered the dark Middle Ages. Perfect for an intellectually stimulating morning commute, this immersive historical journey transports you straight to the bustling streets of Florence and Venice. Experience the...

Two catastrophes. One unshakable truth: the moment humanity declares something invincible is the moment disaster starts writing its opening line. Great Disasters 2-in-1 brings together Dominic Haynes's gripping accounts of the Titanic and Chernobyl — two of history's most devastating reminders that confidence is not the same as safety.

Discover the gritty maritime history of ruthless outlaw sailors rebelling against the world's most powerful empires. Perfect for a gripping commute, this immersive dive into the Golden Age of Piracy strips away the Hollywood caricatures to reveal desperate seaborne workers. You will experience...

Hidden places, extraordinary stories—a journey into the Rome few ever see. Bestselling author and Vatican insider Andreas Englisch takes us beyond the familiar sights of the Eternal City to places where history still lies just beneath the surface. Together with the young Roman Leo, he follows...

Bloomsbury presents The Man Who Invented Fiction by William Egginton, read by Matt Fletcher-Macdonald. ‘In 1605 a crippled, greying, almost toothless veteran of Spain’s wars against the Ottoman Empire published a book. That book, Don Quixote, went on to sell more copies than any other book...

In 1872, Irish soldier and adventurer Sir William Francis Butler published this vivid firsthand account of his journey across the vast, untamed expanse of Canada's Northwest. Dispatched on a hazardous reconnaissance mission during the Red River Rebellion, Butler travelled deep into contested...

The unsolved mysteries of George Mallory, Sandy Irvine, and their legendary 1924 Everest expedition. This program includes an audio-exclusive bonus conversation between the authors. There is no mystery more compelling in the history of mountaineering than the disappearance of George Mallory and...

Soothe your racing mind at bedtime with low-stakes history designed as the ultimate sleep aid for restless nights. Drift away from the day's stress as you listen to beautifully boring tales of forgotten centuries and quiet routines. This calming narrative replaces nighttime anxiety with the...

Experience the dramatic world history of how a small, rugged kingdom forged earth's first global maritime empire. Perfect for an immersive commute or deep intellectual focus, this epic historical narrative plunges you into the turbulent rise and spectacular fall of a fragile superpower. Follow...

Unearth ancient history's greatest archaeological mystery by tracking a vanished Egyptian queen's hidden tomb. Perfect for an immersive daily commute, this captivating non-fiction investigation explores the turbulent eighteenth dynasty and a radical pharaoh who upended tradition. Experience the...

Journey through the epic sweep of world history and uncover how human cooperation forged our modern global civilization. Perfect for your daily commute or a focused afternoon of lifelong learning, this vividly crafted narrative bypasses dry dates to reveal the true catalysts of societal...

The perfect gift for the man who's impossible to buy for. Looking for a gift that won't end up in a drawer? Forget novelty gadgets and another pair of socks. This is a book he'll actually pick up... and struggle to put down. Packed with hundreds of fascinating facts, unbelievable true stories, strange history, incredible science, bizarre inventions, military oddities, engineering marvels, sporting madness, food facts, space discoveries, famous scams, and curious knowledge, this is the ultimate collection of entertaining facts for men.

Women Who Carried Ghosts follows fifteen women across twenty-five centuries—from a Roman atrium where a queen's body became the foundation of a republic, to a Nazi concentration camp where a young spy took her secrets to the grave. Between them: a pirate queen who refused to curtsy before Elizabeth I, an opera singer who burned down a convent for the woman she loved, Soviet pilots the Germans called "Night Witches," and the survivors of the siege of Leningrad who kept diaries in the dark while the city starved.

To recant is to take back a belief in public, under pressure, in front of the people who demanded the reversal. The word carries an older sense underneath the modern one. It comes from the Latin for singing again, and the act it names is a song performed backward, on command, so that the saying can stand in for the truth. In My Mind I'm Standing Up is a history of that act, traced from the Inquisition and the Reformation through the Moscow show trials, the Hollywood blacklist, and the Maoist struggle session, and into the public apology of our own moment.

Experience jaw-dropping historical trivia and bizarre true stories where sheer luck violently reshaped our modern world. Perfect for an energetic morning commute or a long road trip, this fast-paced comedy of errors proves the past was never a neat master plan. It is a chaotic, thrilling chain...

Master lethal ancient laws to survive humanity's first metropolis in this tense, immersive historical adventure. Perfect for an intense daily commute or an educational deep-dive, this second-person journey drops you straight into the dust, markets, and shadows of a ruthless empire. With no...

Silence a restless mind and drift into deep slumber with this soothing sleep aid built on low-stakes historical facts. When late-night anxiety strikes, these beautifully dull and peaceful narratives offer the perfect bedtime routine to calm racing thoughts. There are no sudden twists, thrilling...

Defeat insomnia and drift into deep sleep with this soothing history audiobook crafted specifically for restless minds. Swap racing nighttime thoughts for a calming, unhurried exploration of humanity’s most uneventful and mundane moments. Experience a meditative bedtime journey through...