History

A rich, complex and absorbing subject, it’s hard to find the history of the twentieth century in one accessible book ... until now.From two World Wars to astonishing scientific progress and social upheaval, the twentieth century saw unprecedented change. In this concise history of a century like ...

IN 1854 Britain and France were at war to save ‘poor little Turkey’, the crumbling Ottoman Empire, from the menace of Russian expansionism. On 25 October they were nine days into what would become an eleven-month siege, with little to show for it. Suddenly, from behind them came the unmistakeable...

Travel back to AD 17, during the fourth year of the reign of Wang Mang of the Han dynasty, a vibrant and innovative era full of conflicts and contradictions. But as different as the Han culture might have been to other great ancient civilisations, the inhabitants of ancient China faced the same p...

'Exemplifies what Radio 4 is all about, and what makes it world class' The GuardianOne of the bedrocks of Radio 4, In Our Time has entertained and fascinated millions of listeners since it was first broadcast in 1998. Each week, Melvyn Bragg and a panel of leading academics discuss the big ideas ...

Escorted through the South's parallel black society by John Wesley Dobbs, a historic black civil-rights pioneer from Atlanta, Sprigle met with sharecroppers, local black leaders, and families of lynching victims. He visited ramshackle black schools and slept at the homes of prosperous black farme...

A rare eyewitness account by an important author of fleeing the Nazis’ march on Paris in 1940, featuring a never-before-published introduction by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. In June of 1940, Leon Werth and his wife fled Paris before the advancing Nazis Army. 33 Days is his eyewitness account of tha...

50 Wild Things to Do is a practical guide designed to help you get closer to nature, wherever you are in the UK.

The time is right to learn what really happened on 9/11. The time is right to unearth what has been deliberately withheld from the public. Nearly twenty years ago, on 11 September 2001, four passenger aircraft were hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon near Wash...

In reality Abberline was none of these but instead was a devoted husband and a dedicated policeman in a time or rampant corruption. Furthermore, the Whitechapel murders were not the only notorious cases he worked on. From his humble origins as a clockmaker through to his rising through the ranks ...

Clark gives a gripping account of the flying aces - Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron), Mick Mannock, Rene Fonck, Georges Guynemer, Albert Ball - whose life expectancy was measured in days: they were forbidden to carry parachutes; they lived in dread of being shot down in flames.