History

'An authoritative study of one of history's most feared and successful armies...May concludes this definitive study by tracing the (read more)

'An authoritative study of one of history's most feared and successful armies...May concludes this definitive study by tracing the Mongol legacy to modern mechanized warfare.' Publishers Weekly. 'The Mongol Art of War reflects the state of the field in Mongol military history. May expertly balances his narrative and analysis with little-known vignettes that bring the Mongol conquests to life.

An indispensable resource for specialists, the books is written in a lively and engaging style that make it accessible to students and the interested public alike.' Scott C. Levi, Ohio State University. 'Enlightening, well written and informative...It has great sections on medical care and logistics, so often ignored by other authors, and really captures the feel of the nature of eastern warfare in the 13th century.' Military Illustrated. (hide)

***Stocked 20 November 2014*** The secrets of Queen Victoria's sixth child, Princess Louise, may be destined to remain hidden forever. (read more)

***Stocked 20 November 2014*** The secrets of Queen Victoria's sixth child, Princess Louise, may be destined to remain hidden forever. What was so dangerous about this artistic, tempestuous royal that her life has been documented more by rumour and gossip than hard facts? When Lucinda Hawksley started to investigate, often thwarted by inexplicable secrecy, she discovered a fascinating woman, modern before her time, whose story has been shielded for years from public view. Louise was a sculptor and painter, friend to the Pre-Raphaelites and a keen member of the Aesthetic movement.

The most feisty of the Victorian princesses, she kicked against her mother's controlling nature and remained fiercely loyal to her brothers - especially the sickly Leopold and the much-maligned Bertie. She sought out other unconventional women, including Josephine Butler and George Eliot, and campaigned for education and health reform and for the rights of women. She battled with her indomitable mother for permission to practice the 'masculine' art of sculpture and go to art college - and in doing so became the first British princess to attend a public school. (hide)

The Grande Armee of Napoleon Bonaparte is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest fighting forces ever deployed. With it the (read more)

The Grande Armee of Napoleon Bonaparte is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest fighting forces ever deployed. With it the French scored a streak of historic victories that gave them an unprecedented grip on power over the European continent. At its peak it was made up of 680,000 men, a huge multi-national force of officers, infantry and cavalry, artillery and support services masterminded by a superior and highly flexible system of corps, divisions, brigades and regiments, commanded by officers in which Napoleon placed a huge degree of trust and autonomy to operate within the outlines of his strategic objectives.

Published:7 Jan 2019 (hide)

Richard Vinen's National Service is a serious - if often very entertaining - attempt to get to grips with the reality of that extraordinary (read more)

Richard Vinen's National Service is a serious - if often very entertaining - attempt to get to grips with the reality of that extraordinary institution, which now seems as remote as the British Empire itself. With great sympathy and curiosity, Vinen unpicks the myths of the two 'gap years', which all British men who came of age between 1945 and the early 1960s had to fill with National Service. This book is fascinating to those who endured or even enjoyed their time in uniform, but also to anyone wishing to understand the unique nature of post-war Britain. (hide)

The Nazis' vast concentration camp network and, later, the 'Final Solution' programme made heavy demands on the SS whose responsibility (read more)

The Nazis' vast concentration camp network and, later, the 'Final Solution' programme made heavy demands on the SS whose responsibility it was. The use of 'overseers' minimised costs and enabled the camps to run with fewer SS personnel. As this well researched book describes, there were three principal groups of 'helpers': Sonderkommandos, Kapos and Trawniki.

The Sonderkommandos' duties included unloading Jews from trains, collecting their possessions and allocating work details. Under SS supervision, they also ran the gas chambers and crematoria. The Kapos oversaw the Sonderkommandos.

Published:30 Apr 2021 (hide)

The New York Times bestselling author returns with a tale as riveting and suspenseful as any thriller: the true story of the Nazi (read more)

The New York Times bestselling author returns with a tale as riveting and suspenseful as any thriller: the true story of the Nazi plot to kill the leaders of the United States, Great Britain, and the U.S.S.R. during World War II. The mission: to kill the three most important and heavily guarded men in the world.

The assassins: a specially trained team headed by the killer known as The Most Dangerous Man in Europe. The stakes: nothing less than the future of the Western world. The year is 1943 and the three Allied leaders-Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin-are meeting for the first time at a top-secret conference in Tehran. But the Nazis have learned about the meeting and Hitler sees it as his last chance to turn the tide. Although the war is undoubtedly lost, the Germans believe that perhaps a new set of Allied leaders might be willing to make a more reasonable peace in its aftermath. (hide)

Renowned World War Two historian James Holland presents an entirely new perspective on one of the most important moments in recent (read more)

Renowned World War Two historian James Holland presents an entirely new perspective on one of the most important moments in recent history, unflinchingly examining the brutality and violence that characterised the campaign.

D-Day and the 76 days of bitter fighting in Normandy that followed have come to be seen as a defining episode in the Second World War. Its story has been endlessly retold, and yet it remains a narrative burdened by both myth and assumed knowledge. In this reexamined history, James Holland presents a broader overview, one that challenges much of what we think we know about D-Day and the Normandy campaign. (hide)

On which day was history's shortest war waged and won (in roughly 40 minutes)? How was Napoleon bested by a group of rabbits in 1807? (read more)

On which day was history's shortest war waged and won (in roughly 40 minutes)? How was Napoleon bested by a group of rabbits in 1807? Why did a dispute about beer in an Oxford pub lead to over 100 deaths and 470 years of penance? Why in 1752 did Britain go to bed on 2nd September and wake up on the 14th? How did a women's march in 1917 set off the Russian Revolution?On This Day in History brings to life a key event that happened on each day of the year. (hide)

In August 1942, beleaguered Malta was within weeks of surrender to the Axis, because its 300,000 people could no longer be fed. Churchill (read more)

In August 1942, beleaguered Malta was within weeks of surrender to the Axis, because its 300,000 people could no longer be fed. Churchill made a personal decision that at all costs, the 'island fortress' must be saved. This was not merely a matter of strategy, but of national prestige, when Britain's fortunes and morale had fallen to their lowest ebb.

The largest fleet the Royal Navy committed to any operation of the western war was assembled to escort fourteen fast merchantmen across a thousand of miles of sea defended by six hundred German and Italian aircraft, together with packs of U-boats and torpedo craft. The Mediterranean battles that ensued between 11 and 15 August were the most brutal of Britain's war at sea, embracing four aircraft-carriers, two battleships, seven cruisers, scores of destroyers and smaller craft. The losses were appalling: defeat seemed to beckon. (hide)

Eighteenth-century London was teeming with humanity, and poverty was never far from politeness. Legend has it that, on his daily (read more)

Eighteenth-century London was teeming with humanity, and poverty was never far from politeness. Legend has it that, on his daily commute through this thronging metropolis, Captain Thomas Coram witnessed one of the city's most shocking sights-the widespread abandonment of infant corpses by the roadside. He could have just passed by.

Instead, he devised a plan to create a charity that would care for these infants; one that was to have enormous consequences for children born into poverty in Britain over the next two hundred years. Orphans of Empire tells the story of what happened to the thousands of children who were raised at the London Foundling Hospital, Coram's brainchild, which opened in 1741 and grew to become the most famous charity in Georgian England. It provides vivid insights into the lives and fortunes of London's poorest children, from the earliest days of the Foundling Hospital to the mid-Victorian era, when Charles Dickens was moved by his observations of the charity's work to campaign on behalf of orphans. (hide)