History

A delightful and fascinating social history of Victorians at leisure, told through the letters, diaries, journals and novels of nineteenth-century (read more)

A delightful and fascinating social history of Victorians at leisure, told through the letters, diaries, journals and novels of nineteenth-century men and women, from the author of the bestselling 'The Victorian House'. Imagine a world where only one in five people owns a book, where just one in ten has a knife or a fork - a world where five people out of every six do not own a cup to hold a hot drink. That was what England was like in the early eighteenth century.

Yet by the close of the nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution had brought with it not just factories, railways, mines and machines but also fashion, travel, leisure and pleasure. Leisure became an industry - a cornucopia of excitement for the masses - and it was spread by newspapers, advertising, promotions and publicity - all of which were eighteenth-century creations. It was Josiah Wedgwood and his colleagues who invented money-back guarantees, free delivery and celebrity endorsements. (hide)

From the prize-winning screenwriter of The Theory of Everything, this is a cinematic, behind-the-scenes account of a crucial moment (read more)

From the prize-winning screenwriter of The Theory of Everything, this is a cinematic, behind-the-scenes account of a crucial moment which takes us inside the mind of one of the world's greatest leaders - and provides a revisionist, more rounded portrait of his leadership.May, 1940. Britain is at war, European democracies are falling rapidly and the public are unaware of this dangerous new world. Just days after his unlikely succession to Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, faces this horror - and a sceptical King and a party plotting against him. (hide)

After two years of nonstop negotiations with the Russian authorities, Jean-Christophe Brisard and Lana Parshina were granted access (read more)

After two years of nonstop negotiations with the Russian authorities, Jean-Christophe Brisard and Lana Parshina were granted access to secret files detailing the Soviets' incredible hunt to recover Hitler's body: the layout of the bunker, plans for escaping, eyewitness accounts of the Fuhrer's final days, and human remains-a bit of skull with traces of the lethal bullet and a fragment of jaw bone. For the first time, the skull, teeth and other elements were analysed by a medical examiner with cutting edge forensics equipment. The authors use these never before seen documents and research to reconstruct the events in fascinating new detail. (hide)

Well-behaved women don't make history: difficult women do. Strikers in saris. Bomb-throwing suffragettes. The pioneer of the refuge (read more)

Well-behaved women don't make history: difficult women do. Strikers in saris. Bomb-throwing suffragettes.

The pioneer of the refuge movement who became a men's rights activist. Forget feel-good heroines: meet the feminist trailblazers who have been airbrushed from history for being 'difficult' - and discover how they made a difference. Here are their stories in all their shocking, funny and unvarnished glory. (hide)

This is the first book to present an analysis of images of working people in Roman society and to interpret their meaning and significance. (read more)

This is the first book to present an analysis of images of working people in Roman society and to interpret their meaning and significance. What did work mean to the Romans?Numerous incidental illustrations of agricultural workers occur in Roman artworks, particularly mosaic pavements. More significantly, the names and trades of many individual working people, artisans, and professionals are known from inscriptions and funerary monuments in Rome and from across the empire. (hide)

One of the first words we learn. Perhaps the best friend we'll have. An animal so much part of our lives that we speak to it like (read more)

One of the first words we learn.

Perhaps the best friend we'll have. An animal so much part of our lives that we speak to it like a child and spend small fortunes on its wellbeing and wardrobe. Dogs and humans: in the last 200 years no inter-species relationship has developed so fast nor come so far.

Dogs accompany us in every walk of life, usually three times a day. How and why did this relationship begin? How has it changed over the centuries? And who's getting the upper hand? DOG'S BEST FRIEND investigates this unique bond by revisiting some of the most important milestones in our shared journey. It begins with the earliest visual evidence on ancient rock art, and ends at the laboratory that sequenced the first dog genome. (hide)

In 1940, at the French port of Dunkirk, more than 300,000 trapped Allied troops were dramatically rescued from destruction at the (read more)

In 1940, at the French port of Dunkirk, more than 300,000 trapped Allied troops were dramatically rescued from destruction at the hands of Nazi Germany by an extraordinary seaborne evacuation. The true history of the soldiers, sailors, airmen and civilians involved in the nine-day skirmish has passed into legend.

Now, the story Winston Churchill described as a 'miracle' is narrated by bestselling author Joshua Levine in its full, sweeping context, including new interviews with veterans and survivors. Told from the viewpoints of land, sea and air, Joshua Levine's Dunkirk is a dramatic account of a defeat that paved the way to ultimate victory and preserved liberty for generations to come.
(hide)

Michael Pye's The Edge of the World is an epic adventure: from the Vikings to the Enlightenment, from barbaric outpost to global (read more)

Michael Pye's The Edge of the World is an epic adventure: from the Vikings to the Enlightenment, from barbaric outpost to global centre, it tells the amazing story of northern Europe's transformation by sea. "An utterly beguiling journey into the dark ages of the north sea. A complete revelation...Pye writes like a dream.

Magnificent." (Jerry Brotton, author of A History of the World in Twelve Maps). This is a story of saints and spies, of fishermen and pirates, traders and marauders - and of how their wild and daring journeys across the North Sea built the world we know. When the Roman Empire retreated, northern Europe was a barbarian outpost at the very edge of everything.

A thousand years later, it was the heart of global empires and the home of science, art, enlightenment and money. We owe this transformation to the tides and storms of the North Sea. The water was dangerous, but it was far easier than struggling over land; so it was the sea that brought people together.
(hide)

Who made modern Britain the country it is today? What does it mean to be the new Elizabethans? Back in 1953 when the Queen ascended (read more)

Who made modern Britain the country it is today? What does it mean to be the new Elizabethans? Back in 1953 when the Queen ascended her throne, Britain was a very different nation. People wore more hats and uniforms, went regularly to church and were deeply class conscious. The Windrush generation had arrived just five years earlier, and many African-Caribbean and Indian people new to the UK were being denied housing, work, and entry to pubs, clubs and places of worship. (hide)

The status of boundaries and borders, questions of global poverty and inequality, criteria for the legitimate uses of force, the (read more)

The status of boundaries and borders, questions of global poverty and inequality, criteria for the legitimate uses of force, the value of international law, human rights, nationality, sovereignty, migration, territory, and citizenship: debates over these critical issues are central to contemporary understandings of world politics. Bringing together an interdisciplinary range of contributors, including historians, political theorists, lawyers, and international relations scholars, this is the first volume of its kind to explore the racial and imperial dimensions of normative debates over global justice.

Published:28 Feb 2019 (hide)