History

Ballads and songs of Peterloo is an edited collection of poems and songs written following the Peterloo Massacre in 1819. This collection, (read more)

Ballads and songs of Peterloo is an edited collection of poems and songs written following the Peterloo Massacre in 1819. This collection, which includes over seventy poems, were published either as broadsides or in radical periodicals and newspapers. Notes to support the reading of the texts are provided, but they also stand alone, conveying the original publications without diluting their authenticity. (hide)

The American Revolution presented a series of unique tactical challenges to its competing factions. For Britain, the Army would be (read more)

The American Revolution presented a series of unique tactical challenges to its competing factions. For Britain, the Army would be forced to re-learn many of the lessons from the Seven Years' War. After the debacle of Concord and Bunker Hill, the British implemented a range of changes throughout the Army, including the modification of accepted tactical doctrine.

Additionally, the British formed alliances with various independent German states. The soldiers they provided thus answered to different armies. How much their tactics adapted during the war, therefore varied from state to state.
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The battlecruiser is perceived by many as the most glamorous of warships, remembered for its triumphs and tragedies in both world (read more)

The battlecruiser is perceived by many as the most glamorous of warships, remembered for its triumphs and tragedies in both world wars. Often forgotten are its lineal ancestors, the big cruisers that were constructed as capital ships for distant waters, as commerce raiders, and as fast scouts for the battlefleet during the last decades of the nineteenth century and the first years of the twentieth. In this new book by bestselling author Aidan Dobson, the 200 or so big cruisers that were built for the world's navies from 1865 are described and analysed in detail.

The type came into being in the 1860s when the French built a series of cruising ironclads to project its power in the Far East. Britain followed suit as did Russia. By the 1890s the general adoption of these fast, heavily-armed and moderately armoured vessels ushered in the golden age of the big cruiser. (hide)

Belfast History Tour offers an insight into the fascinating history of the capital city of Northern Ireland. Author Aidan Campbell (read more)

Belfast History Tour offers an insight into the fascinating history of the capital city of Northern Ireland. Author Aidan Campbell guides us around its well-known streets and buildings, showing how its famous landmarks used to look and how they have changed over the years as well as exploring its lesser-known sights and hidden corners. With the help of a handy location map, readers are invited to follow a timeline of events and discover for themselves the changing face of Belfast. (hide)

Beneath the Killing Fields of the Western Front still lies a hidden landscape of industrialised conflict virtually untouched since (read more)

Beneath the Killing Fields of the Western Front still lies a hidden landscape of industrialised conflict virtually untouched since 1918. This subterranean world is an ambiguous environment filled with material culture that that objectifies the scope and depth of human interaction with the diverse conflict landscapes of modern war. Covering the military reasoning for taking the war underground, as well as exploring the way that human beings interacted with these extraordinary alien environments, this book provides a more all-encompassing overview of the Western Front.

The underground war was intrinsic to trench warfare and involved far more than simply trying to destroy the enemy's trenches from below. It also served as a home to thousands of men, protecting them from the metallic landscapes of the surface. With the aid of cutting edge fieldwork conducted by the author in these subterranean locales, this book combines military history, archaeology and anthropology together with primary data and unique imagery of British, French, German and American underground defences in order to explore the realities of subterranean warfare on the Western Front, and the effects on the human body and mind that living and fighting underground inevitably entailed.

Pub Date:
30/11/2016 (hide)

From the high-ranking officer who wrote the still-classified British military analysis of the war in Iraq comes the authoritative (read more)

From the high-ranking officer who wrote the still-classified British military analysis of the war in Iraq comes the authoritative history of two conflicts which have overshadowed the beginning of the 21st century. Inextricably linked to the ongoing 'War on Terror', the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan dominated more than a decade of international politics, and their influence is felt to this day. Blood, Metal and Dust is the first military history to offer a comprehensive overview of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, providing in-depth accounts of the operations undertaken by both US and UK forces. (hide)

This unflinching history of the darkest days of the Second World War covers the entire world stage, from the Battle of the Atlantic (read more)

This unflinching history of the darkest days of the Second World War covers the entire world stage, from the Battle of the Atlantic to Pearl Harbor. Rooted in the personal accounts of the soldiers themselves, Blood, Tears and Folly is a sweeping, moving account of the political machinations, the strategy and tactics, the weapons and the men on both sides who created a world of devastation.
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Published on 01/09/2015: It is time for a new book about bog bodies: the number of known bodies is growing. Lindow Man, the famous (read more)

Published on 01/09/2015: It is time for a new book about bog bodies: the number of known bodies is growing. Lindow Man, the famous Pete Marsh discovered in Cheshire in the 1980s, has been joined by new finds from Ireland and elsewhere. Who were these unfortunate people, and why were they killed? Archaeologists, armed with the latest analytical techniques, are today investigating these cold cases to reveal much about our distant past.

Forensic science allows us to deduce the age, physical condition, status, cause and time of death of these ancient victims, helping to answer the fundamental questions that they pose: were these people executed, simply murdered, or victims of human sacrifice? Who selected them? Who delivered the killing blow, and why? Drawing on all the latest evidence and research, Miranda Aldhouse-Green has written an engrossing detective story, uncovering the hidden truths behind these murder mysteries. (hide)

Bomber Command is journalist and military historian Sir Max Hastings' compelling account of one of the most controversial struggles (read more)

Bomber Command is journalist and military historian Sir Max Hastings' compelling account of one of the most controversial struggles of the Second World War. RAF Bomber Command's offensive against the cities of Germany was one of the epic campaigns of the Second World War. More than 56,000 British and Commonwealth aircrew and 600,000 Germans died in the course of the RAF's attempt to win the war by bombing. (hide)

Britain fought in the Second World War to save the world from fascism. But just a few years after the defeat of Hitler came the Mau (read more)

Britain fought in the Second World War to save the world from fascism. But just a few years after the defeat of Hitler came the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya - a massive armed rebellion by the Kikuyu people, demanding the return of their land and freedom. The draconian response of Britain's colonial government was to detain nearly the entire Kikuyu population of one-and-a half-million: to hold them in camps or confine them in villages ringed with barbed wire, to treat and portray them as sub-human savages.

From 1952 until the end of the war in 1960 tens of thousands of detainees - and possibly hundreds of thousands - died from the combined effects of exhaustion, disease, starvation and systemic physical brutality. Until now these events have remained untold, largely because the British government in Kenya destroyed most of its files. For the last eight years Caroline Elkins has conducted exhausted research to piece together the story, unearthing reams of documents and interviewing several hundred Kikuyu survivors. (hide)