History

Buildings of Empire takes the reader on an exciting journey through thirteen territories of the British Empire. From Dublin Castle (read more)

Buildings of Empire takes the reader on an exciting journey through thirteen territories of the British Empire. From Dublin Castle to the glass and steel of Sir Norman Foster's Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank skyscraper, these buildings capture the essence of the imperial experience, painting an intimate portrait of the biggest empire the world has ever seen: the people who made it and the people who resisted it, as well as the legacy of the imperial project throughout the world. Ashley Jackson visits classic examples of the buildings that the British governed from, the forts they (often brutally) imposed their rule from, the railway stations they travelled from, the banks they traded from, the educational establishments they spread their values from, as well as the grand colonial hotels they stayed in, the sporting clubs and botanical gardens where they took their leisure, and the monumental exhibition spaces in which they celebrated the achievements of settlement and imperial endeavour. (hide)

Pub Date:28/02/2015 - Napoleon Bonaparte is often credited with saying that 'an army marches on its stomach'. A hundred years after (read more)

Pub Date:28/02/2015 - Napoleon Bonaparte is often credited with saying that 'an army marches on its stomach'. A hundred years after his time, the soldiers of the Great War would do little marching. Instead, they would fight their battles from cold, muddy trenches, looking out across No Man's Land towards another set of trenches that housed the enemy.

It is one of the remarkable successes of the war that they rarely went hungry. During the war, the army grew from its peace-time numbers of 250,000 to well over 3 million. They needed three meals a day and, using the men's own letters and diaries, John Hartley tells the story of the food they ate, how it got to them in those trenches and what they thought of it. (hide)

The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic examines all aspects of Roman history and civilization from 509 to 49 BC. The key development (read more)

The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic examines all aspects of Roman history and civilization from 509 to 49 BC. The key development of the republican period was Rome's rise from a small city to a wealthy metropolis, which served as the international capital of an extensive Mediterranean empire. These centuries produced a classic republican political culture, closely associated with the growth of a world empire.

They also witnessed the slow disintegration of republican government under the relentless and combined pressure of external commitments, growing internal dissension, and the boundless ambition of successful military leaders. In the second edition of this Companion volume, distinguished European, Canadian, and American scholars present a variety of lively current approaches to understanding the political, military, and social aspects of Roman history, as well as its literary and visual culture. The second edition includes a new introduction, three new chapters on population, slavery, and the rise of empire, and updated bibliographies and maps. (hide)

The Cambridge World History is an authoritative new overview of the dynamic field of world history. It covers the whole of human (read more)

The Cambridge World History is an authoritative new overview of the dynamic field of world history. It covers the whole of human history, not simply history since the development of written records, in an expanded time frame that represents the latest thinking in world and global history. With over two hundred essays, it is the most comprehensive account yet of the human past, and it draws on a broad international pool of leading academics from a wide range of scholarly disciplines.

Reflecting the increasing awareness that world history can be examined through many different approaches and at varying geographic and chronological scales, each volume offers regional, topical, and comparative essays alongside case studies that provide depth of coverage to go with the breadth of vision that is the distinguishing characteristic of world history. (hide)

From the best-selling author of All Hell Let Loose comes a magisterial chronicle of the calamity that befell Europe in 1914 as the (read more)

From the best-selling author of All Hell Let Loose comes a magisterial chronicle of the calamity that befell Europe in 1914 as the continent shifted from the glamour of the Edwardian era to the tragedy of total war. In 1914, Europe plunged into the 20th century's first terrible act of self-immolation- what was then called The Great War. On the eve of its centenary, Max Hastings seeks to explain both how the conflict came about and what befell millions of men and women during the first months of strife.

He finds the evidence overwhelming, that Austria and Germany must accept principal blame for the outbreak. While what followed was a vast tragedy, he argues passionately against the 'poets' view', that the war was not worth winning. It was vital to the freedom of Europe, he says, that the Kaiser's Germany should be defeated.

His narrative of the early battles will astonish those whose images of the war are simply of mud, wire, trenches and steel helmets. Hastings describes how the French Army marched into action amid virgin rural landscapes, in uniforms of red and blue, led by mounted officers, with flags flying and bands playing. The bloodiest day of the entire Western war fell on 22 August 1914, when the French lost 27,000 dead. (hide)

Pub Date:28/01/2016 - 'One of the great love stories of history, in a league with Napoleon and Josephine, and Antony and Cleopatra (read more)

Pub Date:28/01/2016 - 'One of the great love stories of history, in a league with Napoleon and Josephine, and Antony and Cleopatra ...Excellent, with dazzling mastery of detail and literary flair' Economist It was history's most successful political partnership - as sensual and fiery as it was creative and visionary. Catherine the Great was a woman of notorious passion and imperial ambition. Prince Potemkin - wildly flamboyant and sublimely talented - was the love of her life and her co-ruler.

Together they seized Ukraine and Crimea, defining the Russian empire to this day. Their affair was so tumultuous that they negotiated an arrangement to share power, leaving Potemkin free to love his beautiful nieces, and Catherine her young male favourites. But these 'twin souls' never stopped loving each other. (hide)

This powerful collection, depicting cavalry engagements on all fronts, showcases the work of contemporary combat artists and illustrators (read more)

This powerful collection, depicting cavalry engagements on all fronts, showcases the work of contemporary combat artists and illustrators from the Great War era. Included here are the works of serious artists, propagandists, illustrators and humourists. The result is a stunning graphic record of the horse in action during the Great War, as reported to contemporary audiences at a time when the events of the Great War were still unfolding.

Published:31 Oct 2018 (hide)

The modern Christmas was made by the Victorians and rooted in their belief in commerce, family and religion. Their rituals and traditions (read more)

The modern Christmas was made by the Victorians and rooted in their belief in commerce, family and religion. Their rituals and traditions persist to the present day but the festival has also been changed by growing affluence, shifting family structures, greater expectations of happiness and material comfort, technological developments and falling religious belief. Christmas became a battleground for arguments over consumerism, holiday entitlements, social obligations, communal behaviour and the influence of church, state and media.

Even in private, it encouraged reflection on social change and the march of time. Amongst those unhappy at the state of the world or their own lives, Christmas could induce much cynicism and even loathing but for a quieter majority it was a happy time, a moment of a joy in a sometimes difficult world that made the festival more than just an integral feature of the calendar: Christmas was one of British culture's emotional high points. Moreover, it was also a testimony to the enduring importance of family, shared values and a common culture in the UK. (hide)

It's been a State secret for more than 70 years: The official line in the UK has always been that it never happened - but this new (read more)

It's been a State secret for more than 70 years: The official line in the UK has always been that it never happened - but this new work challenges the assertion that no German force set foot on British soil during World War Two (the Channel Islands excepted), on active military service. Churchill's Last Wartime Secret reveals the remarkable story of a mid-war seaborne enemy raid on an Isle of Wight radar station. It describes the purpose and scope of the attack, the composition of the raiding German force and how it was immediately, and understandably, 'hushed-up' by Winston Churchill's wartime administration, in order to safeguard public morale.

Circumventing the almost complete lack of official British archival documentation, the author relies on compelling and previously undisclosed first-hand evidence from Germany to underpin the book's narrative and claims; thus distinguishing it from other tales of rumoured seaborne enemy assaults on British soil during the 1939-45 conflict. After examining the outcome and repercussions of this astonishing incident, what emerges is an event of major symbolic significance in the annals of wartime history.

Pub Date:
30/11/2016 (hide)

Combining the latest scholarship with a highly readable style, Kathryn Tempest looks at Cicero the politician and orator, and the (read more)

Combining the latest scholarship with a highly readable style, Kathryn Tempest looks at Cicero the politician and orator, and the private man. On the back of his natural talent for oratory, Cicero set out on the path to a glorious reputation - his earliest speeches brought the name of Cicero out of the shadows and hurled him into the spotlight. Cicero was the first 'new man' in thirty years to reach the consulship; the fact that he managed to do so without bribery or violence makes his success even more remarkable.

His year of office witnessed events of such a scale that he was granted the extraordinary honour of the title 'pater patriae' - he was the father of his fatherland. Following the Civil War, and with renewed hopes for the restoration of the Roman Republic, Cicero launched a fierce attack on Mark Antony by delivering a series of speeches that cannot be matched for their vigour. It was these speeches that would be the cause of Cicero's death, and his death was to be as dramatic as his life. (hide)