General and world history Books

A new biography of Carl Linnaeus, offering a vivid portrait of Linnaeus's life and work.Carl Linnaeus (17071778), known as the father of modern biological taxonomy, formalised and popularised the system of binomial nomenclature used to classify plants...

In this gripping sequel to his bestselling 1177 B.C., Eric Cline tells the story of what happened after the Bronze Age collapsed why some civilisations endured, why some gave way to new ones, and why some disappeared forever.At the end of the acclaimed...

After the turbulent years of the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna's attempt to guarantee peace and stability across Europe, a new revolutionary movement emerged in the southern peripheries of the continent. In this groundbreaking study,...

The first English-language biography of the de facto ruler of the late Ottoman Empire and architect of the Armenian GenocideTalaat Pasha (1874-1921) led the triumvirate that ruled the late Ottoman Empire during World War I and is arguably the father of...

A panoramic history of the Muslim world from the age of the Prophet Muammad to the birth of the modern era.This book describes and explains the major events, personalities, conflicts, and convergences that have shaped the history of the Muslim world. The...

Imagine the world before Google or Facebook, when books were the only source of recorded fact. Originally published in 1956, The Guinness Book of Superlatives is the very first book in a series that would one day become one of the most well-known and...

Late Medieval Christianity's encounter with miraculous materials viewed in the context of changing conceptions of matter itself.In the period between 1150 and 1550, an increasing number of Christians in western Europe made pilgrimage to places where...

In 1963, a human skull was discovered in a pub in south-east England. The handwritten note found inside revealed it to be that of Alum Bheg, an Indian soldier in British service who had been blown from a cannon for his role in the 1857 Uprising, his head...

This book illuminates the glittering history of fireworks, from their mysterious beginnings to the dazzling big-budget displays of today. It describes how they enthralled the world's royal courts and became a sensation across the British Empire. There...

In this personal journey, ultra-light backpacker and sought-after speaker Glen Van Peski shares the life lessons he has learned through years of lightening his pack and helping others.Adventures provide the richness and texture to a life well lived. So...

In this wide-ranging book of essays, Deutscher prize-winning author Neil Davidson offers theoretical reinterpretations and appraisals of key thinkers and themes of interest to contemporary radicals. Throughout Davidson demonstrates the enduring...

Brimming with the honesty and passionate conviction for which he has become famous, Victor Serge's account of the first year of the Russian Revolution-through all of its achievements and challenges-captures both the heroism of the mass upsurge that gave...

What's it like to be the son or daughter of a dictator? A monster on the Stalin level? What's it like to bear a name synonymous with oppression, terror, and evil? Jay Nordlinger sets out to answer that question. He surveys 20 dictators in all. They are...

No understanding of the history of the sixties could be complete without a grasp of the work of Leary, Alpert, and Metzner, the cultural resistance to their experiments, and the way in which psychoactive drug use became a part of contemporary society...

In 1901, the Tuskegee Institute, founded by Booker T. Washington, sent an expedition to the German colony of Togo in West Africa, with the purpose of transforming the region into a cotton economy similar to that of the post-Reconstruction American South...

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...

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 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...

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,...

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...

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...

A beautifully illustrated exploration of how Latif Al Ani's photographs and contemporary Iraqi artists continue to challenge the colonial appropriation of Iraq's ancient pastBeginning in the early nineteenth century, Mesopotamian and early Islamic ruins...

Geary's inimitable tongue-in-cheek take on last century's most infamous serial killer.

The Truth About Empirecomes from expert historians who believe that the truth, as far as we can pinpoint it, matters; that our decades of painstaking research make us worth listening to; and that our authority as leading professionals should count for...

For the British people, 1947 was a momentous year. For three long months, they endured the worst winter in living memory, with drastic fuel shortages and power cuts, and continuing food rationing post-World War Two. Heavy snow gave way to widespread...

This book sheds light on a neglected aspect of India's Cold War diplomacy, starting with the role of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his Congress government in organising the first Asian-African Conference in Bandung in April 1955. Andrea...

A sweeping history of how Union victory in the American Civil War inspired democratic reforms, revolutions, and emancipation movements in Europe and the AmericasThe Age of Reconstruction looks beyond postCivil War America to tell the story of how Union...

As the rivalry between the US and China enters a dangerous new phase, reaffirming the politics of anti-imperialism is a task more important than ever.From trade wars and pandemic politics to rioting workers, intercontinental balloons, and battles over...

This book is conceivably the first time that a halachically-informed Jew offers a full picture of his life with the trials, tribulations, and difficulties that he encountered. It also describes the difficulties that rabbis and other Jewish religious...

A major new account of the post-Napoleonic Holy Alliance and the promise it held for liberalsThe Holy Alliance is now most familiar as a label for conspiratorial reaction. In this book, Isaac Nakhimovsky reveals the Enlightenment origins of this...

At last! Godine found a use for the word "sciolist" in a subtitle! This is a throwback to Godine's core of erudition on obscure but fascinating subjects.Unique history of lexicographers and the dictionaries they created. Abundantly illustrated.Author,...

Before It Went Rotten takes a trip back to the world before punk. When Anarchy in the UK appeared, London enjoyed one of the most vibrant music scenes in the world. A network of mainly Irish owned pubs and clubs provided music every night, much of it...

Arctic historian Ken McGoogan approaches the legacy of nineteenth-century explorer Sir John Franklin from a contemporary perspective and offers a surprising new explanation of an enduring Northern mystery.Two of Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin's...

Beautifully produced and a perfect gift for travellers newly wedded or not - by turn funny, tender, acerbic and charming.Includes extracts from: Paul Bowles, Dorothy Sayers, D. H. Lawrence, Byron, Tolstoy, Flaubert, Dorothy Parker, A. N. Wilson,...

Renowned Marxist scholar Michael Lwy offers an indispensable assessment of an enduringly fascinating revolutionary.Vibrant, insightful, and wide-ranging, Lwy's essays illuminate the heroic, tough-minded idealist and martyr, Rosa Luxemburg. Active in the...

Today, free trade is often associated with right-wing free marketeers. In Pax Economica, historian Marc-William Palen shows that free trade and globalisation in fact have roots in nineteenth-century left-wing politics. In this counterhistory of an idea,...

Imperial conquest and colonisation depended on pervasive raiding, slaving, and plunder. European empires amassed global power by asserting a right to use unilateral force at their discretion. They Called It Peace is a panoramic history of how these...

That the idea of world revolution was crucial for the Bolshevik leaders in the years following the 1917 revolution is a well-known fact. But what did the party's rank and file make of it? How did it resonate with the general population? And what can a...

Empires, until recently, were everywhere. They shaped borders, stirred conflicts, and set the terms of international politics. With the collapse of empire came a fundamental reorganisation of our world. Decolonisation unfolded across territories as well...

A comprehensive, readable history of the Republic of Turkeythat gives equal weight to all periods in the first century of the Republic of Turkey. The republican order of Turkey seems not to have changed much since its foundation in 1923, but there were...

I Dare Say: A Gerald Horne Readeris a timely and essential collection of the many works of Professor Gerald Horne-a historian who has made an indelible impact on the study of US and international history.Horne approaches his study of history as a deeply...

An essential record from the Second International, assembled by Under the Socialist Banner. At its height, the Second (Socialist) International (1889-1914) represented the majority of organized workers in the world, with the revolutionary goal of...

An original study of empire creation and its consequences, from ancient through early modern times.The world's first great empires established by the ancient Persians, Chinese, and Romans are well known, but not the empires that emerged on their margins...

Why is the scientific community so unified?In the last 350-odd years, the international 'scientific community' has come to be the bastion of consensus and concerted action, especially in the face of two global crises: disastrous climate...

Surprisingly, the remarkable story of the Scottish role in the discovery of the Northwest Passage a long desired trade route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific has not received a great deal of attention. This book charts the extensive contribution to...

What if a book, based on science fact, showed that Atlantis was a real place, a lush island that once existed in the Atlantic? A book that provides overwhelming evidence that Atlantis once likely existed. That would be a game-changer. "Solving the...