History

From ill-advised ventures in Ireland to the failure to curtail North African Corsair states all the way to the collapse of commercial operations in East Asia, British attempts to create an imperial enterprise often ended in embarrassment and even disaster. In this book, David Veevers looks beyond...

A simple, friendly first history series that takes a close look at some key events and personalities through history and reveals how and why they are still important to us today. Each book uses a rich variety of historical sources, from diaries to paintings, to bring events to life, while simple ...

History belongs to the heroes. But to get the full story, sometimes you have to ask the side characters. The lives of Leonardo da Vinci, Henry VIII and Queen Victoria fill bookshelves and fascinate scholars all over the world. But little attention is given to the ferret who posed for the renaissa...

In the summer of 2006, Colour-Sargeant Kailash Limbu's platoon was sent to relieve and occupy a police compound in the town of Now Zad in Helmand. He was told to prepare for a forty-eight hour operation. In the end, he and his men were under siege for thirty-one days - one of the longest such sie...

Have you ever wondered about Edgar ¡theling, the fourteen-year-old who took on William the Conqueror? Or about the woeful collapse of the Angevin Empire under King John? Or what about Eleanor Cobham, a noblewoman found guilty of witchcraft for predicting the death of the King? Join Matthew Lewis ...

Our economy has tanked, our freedoms are shrinking, and social divisions are growing. Our politicians seem most interested in their own careers, and much of the media only make things worse. We are living in a country almost unrecognisable from the one that existed a decade ago. But whose fault i...

An essential guide to the extraordinarily complicated and developing situation in Israel/Palestine. Fully updated to reflect the tense and troubling changes in the region since 7 October 2023, this book puts the present situation into its broader context and, examining all perspectives, it unrave...

Can Israelis and Palestinians end their long conflict? The shocking violence of the events of 2023 undermines hope, as does the long history of peace deals sabotaged by extremists on both sides. In this compelling and timely book, the eminent moral philosopher Jonathan Glover argues that one vita...

The rise of George Villiers from minor gentry to royal power seemed to defy gravity. Becoming gentleman of the royal bedchamber in 1615, the young gallant enraptured James, Britain's first Stuart king, royal adoration reaching such an intensity that the king declared he wanted the courtier to bec...

'Land Between the Rivers' is the result of ten years of research, writing, and thinking about the subject. It is an enormous topic: five thousand years, beginning with Gilgamesh at the edge of historical time. We begin the story with ancient Sumer, and Gilgamesh building the walls of Uruk ('Iraq'...