History & Archaeology Books

The gripping and heroic story of fighter pilots defending the skies over Britain from unprecedented Nazi attackFor 113 terrifying days in 1940, Nazi Germany's air force, the Luftwaffe, threw everything it had at Great Britain in hopes of early victory in...

Andean condors soaring over snow-capped mountains. Waving grasslands where herds of guanacos roam. Mountain lions haunting the shadows . . . Patagonia National Park offers an extraordinary combination of natural beauty and abundant wildlife.Centered on...

Dennis Unkovic asserts that China is, contrary to popular belief,notpoised to take over from the United States as the world's pre-eminent superpower.Chinese President Xi Jinping believes his country is destined to displace the United States as the...

An indispensable guide to understanding modern warfare, especially the decisions made by politicians and generals both good and bad.Has any war in history gone according to plan? Monarchs, dictators and elected leaders alike have a dismal record on...

The Crimean War was the greatest international crisis of the Victorian era, anda modern war of rifles, railroads and telegraphs. As it raged, two writers embedded in the conflict the young Russian officer Lev Tolstoy, and William Howard Russell, an Irish...

Mark Catesby was an eighteenth-century naturalist and artist whose work on the natural history of North America and the Caribbean still has resonance today. During the course of several perilous trips he collected specimens and made extensive...

Oxford played a unique part in the national endeavour to defend Britain in the Second World War. During the Blitz and beyond, thanks to its proximity to London, the city provided an alternative base for civil servants from the Ministry of Food, the...

In 1487, the zealous inquisitor Heinrich Kramer wrote a treatise that would have a remarkable influence on European history. Blaming women for his own lust, and frustrated by official complacency before what he saw as a monstrous spiritual menace, Kramer...

A rich and revealing examination of the legendary pop duo Soft Cell.Soft Cell are not your average pop band. Marc Almond and Dave Ball may be best known for the string of hits they released in 1981, but the powerful first phase of their collaboration...

A celebration of the British elm and positive hope for its future. Since the 1970s nearly all elms in the British Isles have proven to be susceptible to outbreaks of Dutch elm disease, with millions of trees lost. However, the elm was not lost forever...

HIV and AIDS devastated communities across Australia in the 1980s and 1990s. In the midst of this profound health crisis, nurses provided crucial care to those living with and dying from the virus. They negotiated homophobia and complex family dynamics...

A fascinating book exploring the early modern authors who helped to shape Shakespeare's beloved plays.Shakespeare's plays have influenced generations of writers, but who were the early modern playwrights who influenced him? Using the latest techniques in...

Seumas MacInnes, one of Scotland's premier restaurateurs and owner of the iconic Cafe Gandolfi in Glasgow, is not afraid to take issue with the national bard over the sobriquet 'Great chieftain o' the puddin race'. Without slighting the qualities of...

Acclaimed cookery writer Sue Lawrence celebrates the enormous range of Scottish soups in this imaginative and practical collection of recipes, ideal for cooks of all abilities.Some soups make ideal starters, others are a complete meal in themselves...

Europeans are in denial. Against a backdrop of Islamophobia, they are increasingly distancing themselves from their cultural debt to the Muslim world. But while the legacy of Islam and the Middle East is in danger of being airbrushed out of Western...

From Cairo Genizah to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, the spread of books in Jewish vernacular languages and Hebrew characters offers us an extraordinary insight into the linguistic richness of Jewish life.For over two millennia, Jewish...

"They call you a battalion surgeon. I didn't know surgery; really, I was simply trying to save lives." (Audio Interview) William M. McConahey graduated from medical school in 1942 and enlisted with the Army in 1943. He attended medical field service...

Korea's Three Kingdoms period is a genuine 'lost civilization', during which ancient realms vied for supremacy during the first millennium CE. Nobles from this period's feuding states adopted and adapted Buddhism and...

Saving the World tells the forgotten history of climatic botany, the idea that forests are essential for creating and recycling rain. Long before the spectre of global warming, societies recognised that deforestation caused drastic climate shifts - as...

This exploration of the exceptional Buddhist stupa (reliquary mound) at Amaravati, one of ancient India's most extraordinary monuments, presents a fresh perspective on the rich visual culture of ancient South Asia viewed through the lens of art...

This book provides a concise and incisive introduction to the Teutonic Knights, or Teutonic Order, the last of the great military orders established in the twelfth century. Evolving into a powerful religious institution, the Knights left a profound and...

This is a captivating, richly illustrated history of the use of fired clay in Korea, spanning ancient times to the present day. Drawing on the latest research from Korean scholars, Precious beyond Measure features a wide range of examples from...

In 1600, English helmsman William Adams washed ashore in Japan, and was interrogated by Tokugawa Ieyasu, Japan's most powerful warlord and soon-to-be shogun. Far from executing Adams as a pirate, Ieyasu made him one of his most trusted advisers...

The surprising origin story of Britain's love affair with suburban gardening. It is said that Britain is a nation of gardeners and its suburban gardens with roses and privet hedges are widely admired and copied across the world. But how and why did...

A visual history of the artists, fans, and fanzines of widely influential British punk. Zerox Machine is an immersive journey through the vibrant history of British punk and its associated fanzines from 1976 to 1988. Drawing on an extensive range of...

A spirited chronicle of New York's economic and cultural boom during the outstanding decade of the Roaring Twenties.This is the story of the zest for life that gripped New York in the postwar years of the 1920s. The decade ushered in an era of...

A comprehensive overview of Japanese art between 1865 and 1915. The Splendour of Modernity presents a comprehensive overview of Japanese art from 1865 to 1915, including painting, calligraphy, sculpture, prints, ceramics, lacquerware, textiles, basketry,...

A new account of urban Victorian life told through the dubious day-to-day of London's police courts.Nether World presents a rich, often humorous glimpse into everyday life in Victorian London through a revealing account of nineteenth-century...

Griffinology is a fascinating exploration of the mythical creature's many depictions in human culture. Drawing on a wealth of historical and literary sources, this book shows how the griffin has captured the imagination of people for over 5,000...

On 3 January 1911, in the heart of London's mainly Jewish East End, police discovered Latvian revolutionaries wanted for the murder of three officers. A six-hour gunfight ensued, with a fire consuming the besieged building. Winston Churchill,...

Maps go far beyond just showing us where things are located. All Mapped Out is an exploration of how maps impact our lives on social and cultural levels. This book takes you on a journey through the fascinating history of maps, from ancient cave...

Historically, women have been an integral part of spreading our Deen. They have contributed as mothers, wives, supporters, and defenders of our religion. This book allows the reader to take a glimpse into the lives of thirty-seven amazing women. Starting...

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the ordinations of "The Philadelphia Eleven," this expanded and revised edition serves as the definitive account of the courageous women who shattered stained glass ceilings and sparked a global movement to...

'Truly excellent...Goes into fascinating detail.' - Military History MattersThis is the little-known story of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, the women's branch of the Royal Air Force in the Second World War, and the vital work they...

The incomparable first-hand account of the historic Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada told by one of the commissioners who led it. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established to record the previously hidden history of more than a...

(New York - March 6, 2024) What creative possibilities are offered by the gaps, absences, and silences in historical records? This spring, Aperture magazine presents 'Counter Histories', an issue produced in collaboration with Magnum...

A groundbreaking reassessment of existing research and new data on traditional botanical medicine.Traditional medical systems continue to impact the lives of people around the globe. These systems vary greatly in their underlying beliefs, but all...

This is the true story of Winston Churchill and Scotland.In the popular imagination, Winston Churchill is the bulldog of 1940 uncompromising and Conservative. But in 1922 he was the reforming, progressive Liberal MP for Dundee who, after five successive...

The first major exploration of the mural tradition in early modern South IndiaAn astonishing variety of murals greet visitors to the temples and palaces of southern India. Beautiful in execution and extensive in scope, murals painted on walls and...

A provocative look at the central role of slavery in Augustine's religious, ethical, and political thoughtAugustine believed that slavery is permissible, but to understand why, we must situate him in his late antique Roman intellectual context. Slaves of...

"Roger Simon is among the many refugees fleeing blue state neoliberalism, and he's written the best account of our generation's greatest migration." -Tucker Carlson,fired Fox News host "As a citizen of Tennessee, I can attest to the fact that there is a...

The moment in the sun for special operations sometimes appears to have passed, seemingly eclipsed by preparations for potential conflict under the guise of 'great power' competition, combined with failure in Afghanistan. Yet the war in Ukraine serves as...

An intimate conversation between towering public intellectuals examining the contentious interplay between the Cuban Revolution and U.S. empire.An audacious revolutionary experiment in the backyard of empire, Cuba has occupied a vexed role in the...

In the 1960s and '70s, America spent $24 billion (around $150 billion in today's dollars) to land humans on the moon and 'win' the space race. And while humans took their first steps on an extraterrestrial landscape, protesters at Cape...

"A brilliant blend of graphic and literary narration and a lovely work of art in itself."-Kirkus, STARRED ReviewRendered in gorgeously carved wood blocks and buffeted with historical supplemental material, John Vasquez Mejias's The Puerto Rican War tells...

InWar Against the Jews: How to End Hamas Barbarism,Alan Dershowitz-#1 New York Timesbestselling author and one of America's most respected legal scholars-explains why the horrific attack of Oct 7 and Israel's just response changes everything. It has...

With appeal to more than just punk history obsessives, Orstralia offers an unprecedented snapshot of an underacknowledged segment of Australian life and history.Far from punk's more modish North Atlantic core in the late 1970s, discontented youth in...

A bold new account of European imperialism told through the history of water.In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a handful of powerful European states controlled more than a third of the land surface of the planet. These sprawling empires...