General and world history Books

Book SynopsisHistory is a rich, varied and fascinating subject, so it's rare to find the whole lot in one book ... until now. The History of the World in Bite-Sized Chunks pulls it all together, from the world's earliest civilizations in 3500 BC to the founding of the United Nations in 1945, passing by the likes of Charlemagne, the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean War, to name a few.Here's your chance to introduce yourself to the full spectrum of world history, and discover just how the modern world came to be.

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Book SynopsisTHE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERThe complete history of the world, from the beginning of time to the present day, based on the beliefs and writings of the secret societies.Jonathan Black examines the end of the world and the coming of the Antichrist - or is he already here? How will he make himself known and what will become of the world when he does? - and the end of Time. Having studied theology and learnt from initiates of all the great secret societies of the world, Jonathan Black has learned that it is possible to reach an altered state of consciousness in which we can see things about the way the world works that hidden from our everyday commonsensical consciousness. This history shows that by using secret techniques, people such as Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton and George Washington have worked themselves into this altered state - and been able to access supernatural levels of intelligence. This book will leave you questioning everTrade Review'Dan Brown's non-fiction source for The Lost Symbol might well be Jonathan Black's The Secret History of the World' Roger Lews, Daily Express. * Daily Express *'The startling revelations that form the core of this book show the world as deeply strange and mysterious, filled with secrets and codes,with humanity at the heart of a grand cosmic riddle' Graham Hancock, author of Fingerprints of the Gods. * Graham Hancock *Table of ContentsPreface. Introduction. In The Beginning: God Peers at His Reflection; The Looking-Glass Universe. A Short Walk in the Ancient Woods: Imagining Ourselves into the Minds of the Ancients. The Garden of Eden: The Genesis Code; Enter the Dark Lord; The Flower People. Lucifer, the Light of the World: The Apple of Desire; A War in Heaven; The Secrets of the Days of the Week. The Gods who Loved Women: The Nephilim; The Genetic Engineering of Humankind; The Fish Gods; The Original History of the Origin of the Species. The Assassination of the Green King: Isis and Osiris; The Cave of the Skull; The Palladium. The Age of Demi-Gods and Heroes: The Ancient Ones; The Amazons; Enoch; Hercules, Theseus and Jason. The Sphinx and the Timelock: Orpheus; Daedalus, the First Scientist; Job; Solving the Riddle of the Sphinx. The Neolithic Alexander the Great: Noah and the Myth of Atlantis; Tibet; Rama's Conquest of India; The Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali. The Way of the Wizard: Zarathustra's Battle Against the Powers of Darkness; The Life and Death of Krishna the Shepherd; The Dawn of the Dark Age. Getting to Grips with Matter: Imhotep and the Age of the Pyramids; Gilgamesh and Enkidu; Abraham and Melchizedek. The Descent into Darkness: Moses and the Cabala; Akhenaten and Satan; Solomon, Sheba and Hiram; King Arthur and the Crown Chakra. Reason - and How to Rise Above It: Elijah and Elisha; Isaiah; Esoteric Buddhism; Pythagoras; Lao Tzu. The Mysteries of Greece and Rome: The Eleusian Mysteries; Socrates and his Daemon; Plato as a Magus; The Divine Identity of Alexander the Great; The Caesars and Cicero; The Rise of the Magi. The Sun God Returns: The Two Jesus Children; The Cosmic Mission; The Crucifixion in South America; The Mystic Marriage of Mary Magdalene. The Tyranny of the Fathers: The Gnostics and the Neoplatonists; The Murder of Hypatia; Attila and Shamanism; A Touch of Zen. The Age of Islam: Mohammed and Gabriel; The Old Man of the Mountains; Haroun al Raschid and the Arabian Nights; Charlemagne and the Historic Parsifal; Chartres Cathedral. The Wise Demon of the Templars: The Prophecies of Joachim; The Loves of Ramon Lull; St Francis and the Buddha; Roger Bacon Mocks Thomas Aquinas; The Templars Worship Baphomet. Fools for Love: Dante, the Troubadours and Falling in Love for the First Time; Raphael, Leonardo and the Magi of Renaissance Italy; Joan of Arc; Rabelais and the Way of the Fool. The Green One Behind the Worlds: Columbus; Don Quixote; William Shakespeare, Francis Bacon and the Green One. The Rosicrucian Age: The German Brotherhoods; Christian Rosencreutz; Hieronymus Bosch; The Secret Mission of Dr Dee. Occult Catholicism: Jacob Boehme; The Conquistadors and the Counter-Reformation; Teresa, John of the Cross and Ignatius; The Rosicrucian Manifestos; The Battle of White Mountain. The Occult Roots of Science: Isaac Newton; The Secret Mission of Freemasonry; Elias Ashmole and the Secret Chain of Transmission; What Really Happens in Alchemy. The Age of Freemasonry: Christopher Wren; John Evelyn and the Alphabet of Desire; The Triumph of Materialism; George Washington and the Secret Plan for the New Atlantis. The Mystical-Sexual Revolution: Cardinal Richelieu; Cagliostro; The Secret Identity of the Comte de St Germain; Swedenborg, Blake and the Sexual Roots of Romanticism. The Illuminati and the Rise of the Unreason: The Illuminati and the Battle for the Soul of Freemasonry; Occult Roots of the French Revolution; Napoleon's Star; Occultism and the Rise of the Novel. The Mystic Death of Humanity: Swedenborg and Dostoyevsky; Wagner; Freud, Jung and the Materializing of Esoteric Thought; The Occult Roots of Modernism; Occult Bolshevism; Gandhi. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: The Anti-Christ; Re-entering the Ancient Wood; The Maitreya Buddha; The Opening of the Seven Seals; The New Jerusalem. Postscript. Acknowledgements. Illustration acknowledgements. A Note on Sources and Selective Bibliography. Index.

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Book SynopsisTo Queen Victoria she was Aunt Julie; to Catherine the Great she was Grand Duchess Anna Feodorovna, granddaughter-in-law. This is the story of Princess Juliane-Henriette-Ulrike of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, the Rebel Romanov.  Born in 1781 in a small impoverished duchy of Germany, Julie's quiet life took a fairy-tale turn when she married into the Russian Imperial Family - the Romanovs. But this world of baroque splendour, of opulent palaces and grandeur, was no happily ever after. Taken to Russia at just fourteen, her marriage was hastily brokered to save the Saxe-Coburg duchy from financial ruin. Her husband, Grand Duke Konstantin, was cruel and abusive, Julie was uprooted from her home, family, language and culture. As Russia and Europe were thrown into tumult by the murder of Emperor Paul and the rise of Napoleon, Julie finally made her escape back to Germany, where she lived for two decades as a social pariah, denied a divorce by the Imperial Fam

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Book SynopsisNot – as often imagined – of a culture apart, but of a Jewish world immersed in and imprinted by the peoples among whom they have dwelled, from the Egyptians to the Greeks, from the Arabs to the Christians.Which makes the story of the Jews everyone’s story, too.Trade ReviewSchama at his best, a labour of love, as full of memorable incident as a Bellow novel and wittier than a Woody Allen movie * The Times *Schama has written a proud and personal story of his people, one that will make a good starting point for those interested in one of history’s most fascinating and tragic tales -- Josh Glancy * Sunday Times *Inspiring… Schama tells it with panache, weaving facts and anecdotes into a vivid history * Observer *Unforgettable…a delicious cacophony of conversations and clamorous arguments echoing across history * Daily Telegraph *A spirited, immensely enjoyable and wide-ranging account… [expresses] both the triumphs and the tragedies with irrepressible enthusiasm and his customary eloquence * Financial Times *

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Book SynopsisA lively and engaging narrative history showing the common threads in the cultures that gave birth to our own.Trade Review"Bauer guides readers on a fast-paced yet thorough tour…a wonderful starting point for the study of the ancient world." -- Publishers Weekly"[A]n attractive introduction to a subject vast in time and geography.…Bauer's survey will spark the imagination." -- Booklist

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE 2015 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARDWINNER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2016'A thrilling adventure story' Bill Bryson'Dazzling' Literary Review 'Brilliant' Sunday Express'Extraordinary and gripping' New Scientist'A superb biography' The Economist'An exhilarating armchair voyage' GILES MILTON, Mail on Sunday Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) is the great lost scientist - more things are named after him than anyone else. There are towns, rivers, mountain ranges, the ocean current that runs along the South American coast, there's a penguin, a giant squid - even the Mare Humboldtianum on the moon. His colourful adventures read like something out of a Boy's Own story: Humboldt explored deep into the rainforest, climbed the world's highest volcanoes and inspired princes and presidents, scientists and poets alike. Napoleon was jealous of him; Simon Bolívar's revolution was fuelled by his ideas; Darwin set sail on the Beagle because of Humboldt; and Jules Verne's Captain Nemo owned all his many books. He simply was, as one contemporary put it, 'the greatest man since the Deluge'.Taking us on a fantastic voyage in his footsteps - racing across anthrax-infected Russia or mapping tropical rivers alive with crocodiles - Andrea Wulf shows why his life and ideas remain so important today. Humboldt predicted human-induced climate change as early as 1800, and The Invention of Nature traces his ideas as they go on to revolutionize and shape science, conservation, nature writing, politics, art and the theory of evolution. He wanted to know and understand everything and his way of thinking was so far ahead of his time that it's only coming into its own now. Alexander von Humboldt really did invent the way we see nature.Trade ReviewA big, magnificent, adventurous book - so vividly written and daringly researched - a geographical pilgrimage and an intellectual epic! Brilliant, surprising, and thought-provoking . . . a major achievement * RICHARD HOLMES, author of The Age of Wonder and Coleridge *A truly wonderful book . . . Andrea Wulf has told the tale with such brio, such understanding, such depth. The physical journeyings, all around South America when it was virtually terra incognita, are as exciting as the journeys of Humboldt's mind into astronomy, literature, philosophy and every known branch of science. This is one of the most exciting intellectual biographies I have ever read, up there with Lewes's Goethe and Ray Monk's Wittgenstein * A N Wilson *Andrea Wulf's marvellous book should put this captivating eighteenth century German scientist, traveller and opinion-shaper back at the heart of the way we look at the world . . . irresistible and consistently absorbing life of a man whose discoveries have shaped the way we see * MIRANDA SEYMOUR, author of Noble Endeavours: A History of England and Germany *Andrea Wulf is a writer of rare sensibilities and passionate fascinations. I always trust her to take me on unforgettable journeys through amazing histories of botanical exploration and scientific unfolding. Her work is wonderful, her language sublime, her intelligence unflagging * ELIZABETH GILBERT, author of The Signature of All Things and Eat, Pray, Love *Engrossing . . . Wulf successfully combines biography with an intoxicating history of his times * Kirkus *Extraordinary, and often still sadly relevant too * Wanderlust *The phrase 'lost hero of science' in the subtitle of [Wulf's] book is no exaggeration . . . A big book about a big subject, written with scholarship and enthusiasm * Irish Examiner *In her coruscating account, historian Andrea Wulf reveals an indefatigable adept of close observation with a gift for the long view * Nature *[A] gripping study . . . No one who reads this brilliant book is likely to forget Humboldt * New Scientist *This book sets out to restore Humboldt to his rightful place in the pantheon of natural scientists. In the process Wulf does a great deal more. This meticulously researched work - part biography, part cabinet of curiosity - takes us on an exhilarating armchair voyage through some of the world's least hospitable regions -- Giles Milton * Mail on Sunday *Thrilling . . . It is impossible to read The Invention of Nature without contracting Humboldt fever. Wulf makes Humboldtians of us all . . . At times The Invention of Nature reads like pulp explorer fiction . . . She has gone to near-Humboldtian lengths to research her book * New York Review of Books *Engrossing . . . Andrea Wulf magnificently recreates Humboldt's dazzling, complex personality and the scope of his writing * Wall Street Journal *A rollicking adventure story . . . a fascinating history of ideas, in which Wulf leads us expertly along a series of colourful threads that emanate from the great tapestry of Humboldt's life and work . . . What really fascinated me about The Invention of Nature is how relevant Humboldt's ideas are today . . . Arriving in South America, Darwin took his first steps in the tropical forest and exclaimed: "I formerly admired Humboldt, I now almost adore him". Readers of Wulf's marvellous new book may feel the same way * Financial Times *Wulf's telling of his life reads like a Who's Who of his age . . . in its mission to rescue Humboldt's reputation from the crevasse he and many other German writers and scientists fell into after the Second World War, it succeeds * Independent on Sunday *Wulf's biography is a magnificent work of resurrection, beautifully researched, elegantly written, a thrilling intellectual odyssey * Sunday Times *Wulf's brilliant biography traces [Humboldt's] daring travels in South America and across the Andes, his sojourns in Berlin, Paris and London, and the intellectual circles he moved in * Sunday Express *Andrea Wulf is clearly as passionate about this remarkable man as his peers and successors were, and she does an impressive job of capturing the scale and scope of Humboldt's substantial achievements * Press Association *In a superb biography, Andrea Wulf makes an inspired case for Alexander von Humboldt to be considered the greatest scientist of the 19th century . . . Ecologists today, Ms Wulf argues, are Humboldtians at heart. With the immense challenge of grasping the global consequences of climate change, Humboldt's interdisciplinary approach is more relevant than ever * The Economist *We all know who Darwin was because he came up with that memorable line about us all being descended from apes, but, as he himself would readily have admitted, the great man would never have arrived at his great theory had it not been for the very considerable influence of Alexander von Humboldt . . . Given the magnitude of his influence, why Humboldt isn't a household name today is a mystery . . . On the evidence of this wonderful book, however, he should be hastily added to every school syllabus in the land * Scotsman *Darwin pronounced him the greatest scientific traveller who ever lived, but the brilliant German Alexander von Humboldt left no groundbreaking theory or world-changing book. Wulf sets out to restore his diminished reputation, and has given us the most complete portrait of one of the world's most complete naturalists * Mark Cocker, The Spectator, Books of the Year *Wulf's narrative relates Humboldt's life and ideas at a good pace and with a strong eye for the details which will attract the reader's attention * TLS *Wulf imbues Humboldt's adventures there with something of the spirit of Tintin, relishing the jungles, mountains and dangerous animals at every turn . . . [she] has an unfailing ability to spot an interesting quotation or a curious situation. She is very good on the cities where Humboldt lived and the rival atmospheres of Paris and Berlin . . . a superior celebration of an adorable figure * Guardian *This ambitious book restores Humboldt to his rightful place in the pantheon of scientific history. The best chapters describe his exciting travels * Lady *Humboldt's vision became the inspiration for Darwin and a whole generation of American Romantics, including Thoreau and Poe. Humboldt, like Einstein, breathed life into Kant's transcendental unity. We still live in the world they imagined, even if few of us comprehend it * Telegraph *Wulf writes about complicated topics with lucidity and vitality. The Invention of Nature is a book of ideas, which repays careful reading. The intuitive yet systematising genius, courage and charm of Humboldt also make this a most inspiring book * The Times *Andrea Wulf's superb biography is a re-evaluation of a great lost scientist whose thinking strongly affected the way we now conceptualise nature . . . His extensive travels mean his biography is also an adventure story, and Wulf combines scrapes and the science to great effect * Independent *Read Andrea Wulf's gripping biography and you will be wowed by him too. If Humboldt doesn't win prizes I'll eat my party hat * New Scientist, Books of the Year *An absolutely stupendous biography * A.N. Wilson, Evening Standard, Books of the Year *Evocative descriptions of his expeditions . . . delightful stories . . . Wulf's stories of wilderness adventure and academic exchange flow easily, and her affection for von Humboldt is contagious * Publishers Weekly, Books of the Year *Wulf offers a highly readable account of the German scientist's monumental journey in the Americas * 100 Notable Books of 2015, New York Times *Engaging and accomplished * Sunday Times *Explorer, polymath, friend of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Thomas Jefferson and Simon Bolívar, Alexander von Humboldt was one of the greatest scientists of the 19th century. His ideas are as relevant today as they ever were * The Economist, Books of the Year *The real achievement of this wonderful biography is that it is as much a rattling good read as it is an explicit attempt to revive Humboldt's reputation . . . [Wulf] offers us the most complete picture of one of most complete naturalists who has ever lived * New Statesman *Stimulating biography . . . The Invention of Nature elegantly captures a cosmopolitan who straddled the Enlightenment and Romanticism * Country Life *Colourful and engaging * Sunday Telegraph *Explorer, polymath, friend of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Thomas Jefferson and Simon Bolívar, Alexander von Humboldt was one of the greatest scientists of the 19th century. His ideas are as relevant today as they ever were * The Economist *Like Humboldt himself, The Invention of Nature, is scholarly but extremely good fun * The Times, Books of the Year *Wulf does [Humbolt] full justice, bringing his extraordinary and colourful life to a new generation. Based on enormous research, it is the first real biography of this great figure in English and it provides much fascinating detail without overloading the narrative. I can't recommend it highly enough * Morning Star *Wulf takes English speaking readers on a fulsome tour of Humboldt and those he influenced . . . She has travelled in Humboldt's footsteps and made good use of original German evidence. I have much enjoyed my eco-tour through the planet world in her company * Financial Times *In this illuminating, vivid biography, historian and writer Andrea Wulf reveals a great explorer a century or more ahead of his time . . . a cracking read * BBC Wildlife Magazine *A pleasure to read . . . Buckle up and prepare yourself for Andrea Wulf's hugely enjoyable voyage of discovery . . . [a] rip-roaring yarn * Ecologist *Full of vivid renditions of his feats, the narrow mountain paths he trod, the rapid rivers in which he almost drowned, and the exotic ailments from which he suffered . . . much more than an adventure story . . . well-informed and astute . . . among the most attractive features of The Invention of Nature is Wulf's infectious admiration for her subject * London Review of Books *Masterly * Daily Mail *A superior celebration of an adorable figure * Guardian *The decisive factor for the winning book was that it excited and gripped us as judges the most. The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf is a thrilling adventure story as much as a science book about a polymath who had an extraordinary impact on our contemporary understanding of nature. It is a book you will find yourself talking endlessly about with friends in the pub -- Bill Bryson, chairman of the judges for the Royal Society Prize 2016Humboldt may not be well known today but he remains very much of our time: his work tackled many of today's big issues like climate change and biodiversity loss and the interconnectedness of nature. Moreover, he was a polymath who was curious about everything and was a superb communicator. His interdisciplinary approach puts paid to the ridiculous notion that science and the arts are separate entities. We should be taking our cues from Humboldt - be curious and be informed by science on the big issues -- Brian CoxWhen I read The Invention of Nature, long before it was nominated for the Royal Society prize, it was obvious that it was a contender for major honors. It was deeply researched and reported; it told a fine and little known story; it connected the personal to a big idea, and the past to a very pressing present-day concern * The Atlantic *Concise, well-written and extensively researched book . . . vivid, atmospheric and engrossing, a beautiful portrait * Tribune *[A] gripping account of Alexander von Humboldt's synthesis of the science of the natural world -- Stephen Curry * Guardian 'Favourite reads of 2016 as chosen by scientists' *In this meticulously researched and beautifully written biography, Andrea Wulf skilfully rescues Alexander von Humboldt from his undeserved obscurity as she chronicles his long and fascinating life * Forbes.com, 10 Best Popular Science Books of 2016 *Deep scholarship and entertaining writing style. The Invention of Nature is highly recommended * ICON *Historians of science have long recognized the naturalist and traveller Alexander von Humboldt as a pivotal figure in the history of science, but for too long he has been undervalued in the English-speaking world. This beautifully written biography effectively conveys his significance to a wide audience, in an animated and adventurous narrative that echoes the liveliness of Humboldt's own writings. The award of the Dingle Prize particularly recognizes Andrea Wulf's mastery of the vast range of history of science scholarship on Humboldt and her command of original sources in multiple languages. Timely and significant-particularly given current attacks on climate change science - this is scientific biography at its best * Winner of the 2017 Dingle Prize *

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Book SynopsisThis is a brilliant history of the rise to dominance of the West, exploring the links between cultural values and military success. Instead of weighing up the West through its cultural and literary accomplishments, Hanson engages with the much starker record of the Western battlefield. In place of The Great Books, he studies The Great Battles, and offers graphic representations of nine representative clashes between West and non-West. Hanson writes uncommonly well about battle, and has an uncanny ability to evoke the chaos and terror of warfare, so crystallising his argument into records of a few hours of intense combat.Hanson argues that the West has won not just because of technology and military might, but because of its focus on individualism, democratic political structures, and scientific rationalism. However this is no mere Eurocentric account of the steady millennia-long rise of Western power. Rather, it is an explanation of why the West finds itself now militarily unmatched, its values spreading around the globe - sometimes with devastating effects on local cultures which have at times adopted the worst of what European traditions have offered or imposed.Trade Review'Western countries have tended to defeat their enemies in warfare over the last 2500 years as a result of a sustained cultural heritage that has made them ruthlessly efficient on the battlefield. That is the thesis of this robust and stimulating history, and it is especially relevant after the terrible events of September 11.' Richard Lambert, Financial Times; 'At the heart of this big, combative and gutsy book, there is an argument which is powerful and convincing. Wars are not technical exercises in a vacuum; they are products of human societies, and some of the key values and strengths of those societies will be expressed in their conduct of war.' Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph

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Book SynopsisThe splendid finale to Eric Hobsbawm''s study of the nineteenth century, THE AGE OF EMPIRE covers the area of Western Imperialism and examines the forces that swept the world to the outbreak of World War One- and shaped modern society.Trade ReviewMagnificent * The GUARDIAN *A superb achievment, incisive, illuminating and readable * Sunday TIMES *A superbly rich and erudite portrait of a society which was evolving rapidly under a avriety of pressures - economic, technological and political * TLS *Hobsbawm is a master historian * INDEPENDENT *

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Book SynopsisAnton de Kom’s We Slaves of Suriname is a literary masterpiece as well as a fierce indictment of racism and colonialism. In this classic book, published here in English for the first time, the Surinamese writer and resistance leader recounts the history of his homeland, from the first settlements by Europeans in search of gold through the era of the slave trade and the period of Dutch colonial rule, when the old slave mentality persisted, long after slavery had been formally abolished. 159 years after the abolition of slavery in Suriname and 88 years after its initial publication, We Slaves of Suriname has lost none of its brilliance and power.Trade ReviewA New Statesman Book of the Year Selected as a Best Book of 2022 by Public Books “one of the most important works of twentieth-century anticolonial literature.” LSE Review of Books “De Kom is to Suriname what Mandela is to South Africa: a heroic patriot, an advocate of the oppressed, and a symbol of resistance against colonialism.” Unherd “Heart-breaking... he succeeds in bringing to painful life the savagery of what is now widely considered the most vicious colonization project ever.” New Internationalist “Almost ninety years after its first appearance, We Slaves of Suriname is still an exemplary description and analysis of Suriname’s history, which has not lost its power of expression. From micro to macro situations, De Kom displays phenomenal psychological insight and an acute sense of the driving forces of class and race.” Gloria Wekker, Professor Emerita, Utrecht University "We Slaves of Suriname is both an analysis of Suriname’s postcolonial predicament and an insurgent commentary on the archives of Dutch writing about Suriname… By interrogating the crater left by colonialism in the landscape of modernity, De Kom produces a text that speaks, avant la lettre, directly to postcolonial concerns." Postcolonial Studies Journal “An astounding work of lyrical fury … De Kom is a towering radical and anticolonial figure, and this book a painful masterpiece.” China Miéville, New Statesman “a classic of anticolonial Black leftist thought” Public Books"The plantation-dominated past that Suriname shares with the wider Caribbean is vividly brought to life in a 'new' book ... Books in English on Suriname are rare, and this one — We Slaves of Suriname — is a gem."Caribbean BeatTable of ContentsTranslator’s NoteIntroductionsFrimangron by Tessa LeuwshaThe Breath of Freedom by Duco van OostrumWhy Anton de Kom Still Inspires Generation after Generation by Mitchell EsajasForeword by Judith de KomWe Slaves of Suriname“Sranan,” our fatherlandThe era of slaveryThe arrival of the whitesEl DoradoThe first settlementsThe Dutch regimeThe slave tradeThe marketEnslavedThe slave womanThe mastersThe punishmentsThe History of Our NationVan Aerssen van Sommelsdyck (1683–1688)The brutesThe forest expeditionsJohan Jacob Mauricius (1742–1751)Governor Crommelin (1752–1768)Governor Nepveu (1770–1779)Buku (decayed into dust)The final chapter for the resistanceSuriname under British ruleThe great fireThe fate of the ethicalWhite settlementFighting the currentGovernors on paradeThe abolition of slaveryFreedom?The great selloutThe era of freedomHow we liveThe essence of autonomyFin de siècleIndentured laborFree laborIn search of goldThe major cropsWhat becomes of those millions?ResultsReunion and farewellNotesGlossary of Surinamese termsIndex

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Book SynopsisIbn Battutah - ethnographer, biographer, anecdotal historian and occasional botanist - was just twenty-one when he set out in 1325 from his native Tangier on a pilgrimage to Mecca. He did not return to Morocco for another twenty-nine years, travelling instead through more than forty countries on the modern map, covering seventy-five thousand miles and getting as far north as the Volga, as far east as China and as far south as Tanzania. He wrote of his travels, and comes across as a superb ethnographer, biographer, anecdotal historian and occasional botanist and gastronome.With this edition by Tim Mackintosh-Smith, The Travels of Ibn Battutah takes its place alongside other indestructible masterpieces of the travel-writing genre.Designed to appeal to the book lover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES PRIZE FOR HISTORY FINANCIAL TIMES AND NEW STATESMAN BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2014On the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, Deluge is a powerful explanation of why the war''s legacy continues to shape our world - from Adam Tooze, the Wolfson Prize-winning author of The Wages of DestructionIn the depths of the Great War, with millions of dead and no imaginable end to the conflict, societies around the world began to buckle. As the cataclysmic battles continued, a new global order was being born.Adam Tooze''s panoramic new book tells a radical, new story of the struggle for global mastery from the battles of the Western Front in 1916 to the Great Depression of the 1930s. The war shook the foundations of political and economic order across Eurasia. Empires that had lasted since the Middle Ages collapsed into ruins. New nations sprang up. Strikes, street-fighting and revolution convulsed much of the world. And beneath the surface turmoil, the war set in motion a deeper and more lasting shift, a transformation that continues to shape the present day: 1916 was the year when world affairs began to revolve around the United States. America was both a uniquely powerful global force: a force that was forward-looking, the focus of hope, money and ideas, and at the same time elusive, unpredictable and in fundamental respects unwilling to confront these unwished for responsibilities. Tooze shows how the fate of effectively the whole of civilization - the British Empire, the future of peace in Europe, the survival of the Weimar Republic, both the Russian and Chinese revolutions and stability in the Pacific - now came to revolve around this new power''s fraught relationship with a shockingly changed world. The Deluge is both a brilliantly illuminating exploration of the past and an essential history for the present.Trade ReviewBold and ambitious . . . probably the best of the current books about the First World War * Observer *A remarkable new synthesis which draws on [Tooze's] two particular areas of expertise, Eurasia and especially Germany, and the global financial system revolving around London ... the great strength of his book is that he invites us to look at familiar events in unfamiliar ways ... Tooze's account brims with contemporary resonances ... He is too good a historian, however, to turn this into a simple argument for Keynesian deficit financing ... the general public and policymakers alike will - must! - turn to Adam Tooze for instruction -- Brendan Simms * Tablet *It is particularly refreshing to read Adam Tooze's book ... it confirms his stature as an analyst of hugely complex political and economic issues ... Tooze's book covers a huge geographical sweep ... he shows himself a formidably impressive chronicler of a critical period of modern history, unafraid of bold judgements -- Max Hastings * Sunday Times *Adam Tooze's masterly book should be required reading for anyone who wants to truly understand the significance of the war ... Extensively researched and written with exemplary clarity, this work is as monumentally ambitious as its subject ... his powers of description and analysis range across all inhabited continents ... this is a valuable look at the ways in which the years after the war came to define the rest of the 20th century * BBC History Magazine *Interesting, engaging and very readable ... Underpinning this account is an impressive facility with numbers and an ability to analyse them that is increasingly rare among historians nowadays ... he has also delivered, for the first time, ...a clear and compelling rationale as to why it is actually worth going back and looking at the era of the First World War at this particular moment in time ... The Deluge reminds us, then, why we write history and why we should read it * Literary Review *Tooze made his name with The Wages of Destruction . . . His study of the post-1918 era is equally impressive, explaining why the US and its allies, having defeated Germany, were unable to stabilize the world economy and build a collective security system in Europe -- Tony Barber * Financial Times BOOKS OF THE YEAR *

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Book SynopsisA brilliantly arresting historical work, John Lewis Gaddis''s The Cold War takes us as never before to the time when the world stood on the brink of destruction. In 1945 war came to an end. But a whole new terror was only just beginning... Here is the truth behind every spy thriller you''ve read: why America and the Soviet Union became locked in a deadly stalemate; how close we came to nuclear catastrophe; what was really going on in the minds of leaders from Stalin to Mao Zedong, Ronald Reagan to Mikhail Gorbachev, how secret agents plotted and East German holidaymakers helped the Berlin Wall fall. It is a story of crisis talks and subterfuge, tyrants and power struggles - and of ordinary people changing the course of history. ''Gripping''  Len Deighton ''Superb ... brimful of racy incident''  Independent on Sunday ''A lively and readable history''  The Times<

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Book Synopsis?InSame River, Twice, one of Europe''s leading novelists uses her personal experience to shed light on the personal experiences of others: ordinary women trapped in the crossfire of a great geopolitical game.? ?Benjamin Moser, Pulitzer Prize-winning author ofSontag: Her Life and Work?It?s one of those books that can truly changea reader''s life. . . . A powerful, unforgettable read.? ?AndreyKurkov, award-winning author ofGrey BeesandThe Silver BoneBlending the journalistic rigor of Masha Gessen with the call to action of We Should All Be Feminists, a searing denunciation of Putin?s Russia, revealing how modern Russia?s history of weaponizing sexual violence against women plays a crucial role in its current strategy to retain political influence and dominance abroadOn March 22, 2023, the Swedish Academy organized a conference on threats to democracy and freedom of expression featuring a slate of distinguished speakers including Arundhati Roy, Timothy Snyder, and Sofi Oksanen. Oksanen?s address?entitled ?Putin''s War on Women?? would go on to spark such interest that the acclaimed Finnish writer felt compelled to return to it as the basis for a larger, more in-depth look at Putin?s threat to women. The result is Same River, Twice, a devastating book-length essay that incisively builds on the themes and arguments first presented in her powerful speech.During the Soviet occupation of Estonia, Oksanen''s great-aunt was arrested and brutally interrogated overnight. Left permanently traumatized by the experience, she would never speak again. Using her family story as a starting point, Oksanen launches an investigation into the systematic crimes that the Russian government has, for nearly a century, committed with impunity. From the Russian military''s entry into Berlin in 1945 to its modern invasion of Ukraine, Russia has continually employed violence against women when combatting its enemies. Life for women in Putin''s Russia is little better; gender equality is in decline, women are silenced by the legal system, and rape is used to humiliate victims, especially women in media.Through Oksanen''s sober analysis a disturbing picture emerges: under Putin, misogyny has become foundational to the state?s power. It underpins the current regime, serves as a means of weaving international alliances, and forms an essential part of Russia?s ongoing genocide in Ukraine, in turn posing a threat to the rights of women and minorities worldwide. As threats to democracy grow stronger across the globe, the powerful and timely Same River, Twiceis a warning that cannot not be ignored.Translated from the Finnish by Owen F. Witesman

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Book SynopsisJames Crowden is Britain's best cider writer Cider Country is the book we've all been waiting for.' Oz ClarkeJoin James Crowden as he embarks on a journey to distil the ancient origins of cider, uncovering a rich culture and philosophy that has united farmer, maker and drinker for millennia.LONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 ANDRE SIMON FOOD AND DRINK AWARDCidermaking has been at the heart of country life for hundreds of years. But the fascinating story of how this drink came into existence and why it became so deeply rooted in the nation's psyche has never been told. In order to answer these questions, James Crowden traces an elusive history stretching back to the ancient, myth-infused civilisations of the Mediterranean and the wild apple forests of Kazakhstan.Meeting cider experts, farmers and historians, he unearths the surprising story of an apple that travelled from east to west and proved irresistible to everyone who tasted it. Upon its arrival in Britain, monks, pirates and politicians foTrade ReviewPraise for CIDER COUNTRY ‘James Crowden is Britain’s best cider writer. I always turn to his work first when I want top research and inspiring opinions. His new ‘Cider Country’ is the book we have all been waiting for.’ OZ CLARKE ‘Crowden writes with an intoxicating lyricism about the great love of his life – cider. Packed with cider flavoured nuggets of history, magic and folklore, this book will not just make you want to drink the stuff, it will have you packing your bags and move to the West Country to make it.’ Ned Palmer, author of A Cheese-monger’s History of the British Isles ‘Wonderful … From the ancient orchards of Kazakhstan to the cider presses of Somerset, fizzing with fruity stories and yeasty historical tales!’ Alice Roberts ‘James Crowden takes us on the most immersive journey through this drink and tells us of the story of the origins of the apple through Kazakhstan… It’s such a friendly book, a cosy feel…This drink fell into decline particularly in the seventies and eighties, and in more recent years we’ve had this revival of fine cider…This book tells that story. Dan Saladino, Radio 4 Food Programme ‘Books of the Year’ ‘Cider Country is a vivid ramble through orchards and history …Enormous fun, and effortlessly readable.’ Caroline Eden, author of Red Sands ‘Fascinating … Crowden knows this world intimately. He has a gift for evoking the rhythms and smells of cider-making.’ SPECTATOR ‘Imagine that Falstaff's got a handful of PhDs, and that he's holding court late at night in a West Country cider house, rombustiously, outrageously, learnedly, rapturously, fascinatingly. That's Crowden here. Don't miss it.’ Charles Foster, author of Being a Beast

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Book SynopsisThe liberation of Europe and the destruction of the Third Reich is a story of courage and enduring triumph, of calamity and miscalculation. In this first volume of the Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson shows why no modern reader can understand the ultimate victory of the Allied powers without a grasp of the great drama that unfolded in North Africa in 1942 and 1943.Beginning with the daring amphibious invasion in November 1942, An Army at Dawn follows the British and American armies as they fight the French in Morocco and Algeria, and then take on the Germans and Italians in Tunisia. Battle by battle, an inexperienced and sometimes poorly led army gradually becomes a superb fighting force. Central to the tale are the extraordinary but fallible commanders who come to dominate the battlefield: Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley, Montgomery and Rommel.Trade ReviewEvery military history buff should read An Army at Dawn Sunday Telegraph There is much to applaud in this impressively researched work ... An Army at Dawn makes utterly absorbing reading BBC History More of a biography of a generation than of a class at West Point... Stark, shocking, jolting John Eisenhower, Chicago Tribune A compelling and highly readable story that provides a valuable corrective for a British reader Hew Strachan, Telegraph

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Book SynopsisAs fans of Just a Minute know, the key to the game is knowing your way around the English language: how it works, how it's evolved, and how words connect, often in surprising ways. When it comes to the English language (and Just a Minute), Gyles Brandreth has seen it all and now he's ready to put you through your linguistic paces, to become a Just a Minute expert yourself.In this wildly entertaining A to Z of verbal acrobatics, Gyles takes you on a whirlwind tour of our mother tongue from the origins of words and correct grammar and punctuation, to similes, euphemisms and record breaking tongue twisters (try getting your mouth around floccinaucinihilipification!). An idiosyncratic blend of history, word play, anecdote, and hyperbole, all in 60-second instalments, this is Gyles Brandreth at his word-perfect, Just-a-Minute best. You'll never mix your metaphors again...

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Book Synopsis'For sheer entertainment, this rollicking account of Britain before the Great War is hard to beat, brimming as it is with swindlers, murderers and charlatans, imperialist fantasies and saucy innuendos' 'History Books of the Year', The Times'The very best sort of panoramic portrait' David Kynaston'The Edwardians have long been the lost decade of British history, yet they are that history at its climax. Alwyn Turner sets the record straight, bringing its characters, strains and stresses brilliantly to life' Simon JenkinsWhen Queen Victoria died in 1901 it was the end of an era. Many later remembered the era that followed as the long afternoon of an empire where the sun never set. Yet the Edwardians knew the country was in a state of flux; the seismic change that they felt would transform modern Britain forever.In Little Englanders, Alwyn Turner reconsiders the Edwardian era as a time of profound social change, bringing their history alive through music halls and male beauty contests, the

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Book SynopsisOriginally published in Germany in 1955, and in England and the United States in 1958, this classic memoir of WWII by a man who was an acknowledged military genius and probably Germany's top WWII general, is now made available again. Field Marshal Erich von Manstein described his book as a personal narrative of a soldier, discussing only those matters that had direct bearing on events in the military field. The essential thing, as he wrote, is to 'know how the main personalities thought and reacted to events.' This is what he tells us in this book. His account is detailed, yet dispassionate and objective. 'Nothing is certain in war, when all is said and done,' But in Manstein's record, at least, we can see clearly what forces were in action. In retrospect, perhaps his book takes on an even greater significance.Trade ReviewWall Street Journal, October 7, 2006"Generals don't make the best memoirists, mainly because they embellish while writing for posterity; the higher the rank, the worse the tome. The exception is the breathtaking autobiography of Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, the brilliant author of many Germany victories against the Soviets in World War II. Dismissive of oft-cited ‘turning points,’ such as the German defeat at Stalingrad, von Manstein contends that the war was never winnable for Germany because of the leader prosecuting it. As for Hitler's once much-vaunted kinship with regular soldiers, he says the Fuehrer had ‘as little in common with the thoughts and emotions of soldiers as had his party with the Prussian virtues which it was so fond of invoking.’ Coming from Hitler's greatest general, it's a most effective filleting.”WWII History, December 2005“Manstein’s Lost Victories is definitely one of the more interesting and informative German autobiographies to emerge from World War II. New publisher Zenith Press is to be commended for republishing it.”

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Book Synopsis''Who would ever think that a book on cod would make a compulsive read? And yet this is precisely what Kurlansky has done'' Express on SundayThe Cod. Wars have been fought over it, revolutions have been triggered by it, national diets have been based on it, economies and livelihoods have depended on it. To the millions it has sustained, it has been a treasure more precious that gold. This book spans 1,000 years and four continents. From the Vikings to Clarence Birdseye, Mark Kurlansky introduces the explorers, merchants, writers, chefs and fisherman, whose lives have been interwoven with this prolific fish. He chronicles the cod wars of the 16th and 20th centuries. He blends in recipes and lore from the Middle Ages to the present. In a story that brings world history and human passions into captivating focus, he shows how the most profitable fish in history is today faced with extinction.Trade ReviewA must-have book for anyone who loves fish. Kurlansky was innovative (and is now much imitated) in writing a book about how a commodity shaped history. * The Week *This is an extraordinary little book, unputdownable, written in the most lyrical, flowing style which paints vivid pictures and, at the same time, punches into place hard facts that stop you dead in your tracks. Who would ever think that a book on cod would make a compulsive read? And yet this is precisely what Kurlansky has done -- Sir Roy Strong * Express on Sunday *An engrossing and timely little epic * Scotsman *To go out and buy a book on the subject (of cod) is to invite glances of suspicion. While a few eccentrics might think this is a good reason to purchase several copies, for the rest of us it requires a certain leap of faith. Cod...amply rewards such a leap. It is compact and beautifully produced * Mail on Sunday *Refreshing and invigorating, full of fascinating facts * Independent on Sunday *

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Book Synopsis''Highly readable, exciting and thought-provoking'' - Hilary Mantel''A gem of blood-and-thunder storytelling'' - Dominic SandbrookIn medieval England, man was the ruler of woman, and the King was the ruler of all. How, then, could royal power lie in female hands?In She-Wolves, celebrated historian, Helen Castor, tells the dramatic and fascinating stories of four exceptional women who, while never reigning queens, held great power: Matilda, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of France and Margaret of Anjou. These were women who paved the way for Jane Grey, Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I - the Tudor queens who finally confronted what it meant to be a female monarch.

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Book Synopsis''The most comprehensive narrative of intelligence compiled ... unrivalled'' Max Hastings, Sunday Times''Captivating, insightful and masterly'' Edward Lucas, The TimesThe history of espionage is far older than any of today''s intelligence agencies, yet the long history of intelligence operations has been largely forgotten. The first mention of espionage in world literature is in the Book of Exodus.''God sent out spies into the land of Canaan''. From there, Christopher Andrew traces the shift in the ancient world from divination to what we would recognize as attempts to gather real intelligence in the conduct of military operations, and considers how far ahead of the West - at that time - China and India were. He charts the development of intelligence and security operations and capacity through, amongst others, Renaissance Venice, Elizabethan England, Revolutionary America, Napoleonic France, right up to sophisticated moTrade ReviewTo write a world history of intelligence, from the dawn of recorded history to the present day, is a daunting task. To make such a work accurate, comprehensive, digestible and startling, and all in a single volume, is a stellar achievement. But that is what Christopher Andrew has done in The Secret World. -- Edward Lucas * The Times *Brilliant in its sweep and near-miraculous in the detail and confident judgements provided on two and a half millennia of spying ... The book is a crowning triumph of one of the most adventurous scholars of the security world -- John Lloyd * Financial Times *Christopher Andrew delivers a stunning secret archaeology of a subject that he himself helped to create -- Richard J. Aldrich * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisThe Penguin Historical Atlas of the British Empire traces the emergence of the world's greatest empire from its earliest beginnings in the British Isles, through its ascendancy in Victorian times, to its ultimate collapse in the mid-20th century. It examines the impact of British dominance in America, India and Africa, and the enormous changes brought by Britain's settlement of Australasia. Coverage of major events - the colonization of Ireland, the American Revolution, the South African wars - is complemented by discussion of themes such as Imperial exploitation and trade, hunting for plants and animals, the Imperial exhibitions and the importance of British naval power. Also assessed are the impact of the Empire on different areas of the world and the legacy it has bestowed. Richly illustrated with photographs and full-colour maps, this is an illuminating and multi-faceted one-volume introduction to the rise and fall of the British Empire.

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Book SynopsisThe soldiers receive the best service a historian can provide: their story is told in their own words - Guardian''For some reason nothing seemed to happen to us at first; we strolled along as though walking in a park. Then, suddenly, we were in the midst of a storm of machine-gun bullets and I saw men beginning to twirl round and fall in all kinds of curious ways'' On 1 July 1916, a continous line of British soldiers climbed out from the trenches of the Somme into No Man''s Land and began to walk towards dug-in German troops armed with machine-guns. By the end of the day there were more than 60,000 British casualties - a third of them fatal.Martin Middlebrook''s now-classic account of the blackest day in the history of the British army draws on official sources from the time, and on the words of hundreds of survivors: normal men, many of them volunteers, who found themselves thrown into a scene of unparalleled tragedy and horror.Trade ReviewThe soldiers receive the best service a historian can provide: their story is told in their own words * Guardian *A particularly vivid and personal narrative * Times Literary Supplement *Pioneering and hauntingly eloquent -- Peter Parker * Spectator *

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Book Synopsis''Singh is a brilliant young scholar and a gifted writer, and this remarkable book will change how you think about religion, spirituality, consciousness, and human nature'' Paul BloomWhat are the origins of shamanism and what is its future? Do shamans believe in their powers? What exactly is trance? And what can we learn from indigenous healing practices?In this enlightening book, anthropologist Manvir Singh offers a new explanation for one of the most misunderstood religious traditions. Travelling from Indonesia to the Amazon, living with shamans and observing music, drug use and indigenous curing ceremonies, he journeys into the origins of shamanism. Fundamentally, shamans are specialists who use altered states to engage with unseen realities and provide services like healing and divination. As Singh shows, shamanism's ubiquity stems from its psychological resonance. Its core appeal is transformation: a specialist uses initiations, deprivation and non-ordinary states to seemingly become a different kind of human, one possessed with the superpowers necessary to tame life's uncertainty.Following a fascinating cast of characters, Singh tells a larger story about the ancient and modern expressions of this timeless tradition. He argues that biomedicine can learn from shamanic practices, yet that psychedelic enthusiasts completely misrepresent history. He also shows that shamanic traditions will forever re-emerge and that by journeying into humanity's oldest spiritual practice, we come to better understand ourselves, our history and our future.

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Book SynopsisTowards the end of 1906, a meeting took place between two emerging giants of the age, Mohandas K. Gandhi and General Jan Christian Smuts. United under the same empire, but separated by distance and culture, Smuts was born in the Cape Colony, and Gandhi in Porbandar, a duchy of the Indian province of Gujarat. Both, however, went on to study law in Britain, and while developing a great admiration for the institutions of empire, each man also suffered his own particular crisis of faith. From their widely dispersed origins, Gandhi and Smuts collided over the issue of race and equality in a turbulent province of the empire, each attempting to hold the British to their stated ideals. This insightful book explores attitudes to race, and belonging, in an age when the English speaking peoples straddled the globe, and sought to impose on all of their subject races, basking under the radiance of Britannia, a common ideal of parity, equal opportunity and free movement.

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Book SynopsisAn unforgettable 3,000-year-old journey - from Mesopotamian clay tablets trying to predict the future, to Tudor book-hunters and Nazi bonfires, and on into the dangers of our increasingly digital existence, Burning the Books shows how the preservation of knowledge is vital for the survival of civilization itself. 'A wonderful book, full of good stories and burning with passion' SUNDAY TIMES, BOOKS OF THE YEAR'Compelling, fascinating and rewarding' LITERARY REVIEW'When books burn, it is more than just words under attack . . . this extraordinary book should stir us to thinking and to action' FINANCIAL TIMES 'A tale of ingenuity and deep courage' GUARDIAN'A stark warning - the truth itself is under attack' THE TIMES, BOOKS OF THE YEARTrade ReviewPassionate and illuminating... this splendid book reveals how, in today's world of fake news and alternative facts, libraries stand defiant as guardians of truth. -- Gerard deGroot * THE TIMES *'Dangerous souvenirs' is what Richard Ovenden calls the books salvaged by ex-monks under the nose of Henry VIII. Now as then, books need friends. This fascinating book will help to find them. -- ALAN BENNETTIf there's anyone you might want to read your love letters after your death, it's Richard Ovenden; as Burning the Books reveals on every page, not only is he careful, diligent and wise, he also knows what to leave out and what to keep in and it's this quality that, above all, makes his book so remarkable. Francis Bacon described the creation of the Bodleian in the 1590s as 'an ark to save learning from the deluge' -- the deluge in question being the Reformation. Ovenden's ark, also written at a time of huge political and economic strife, attempts to save the concept of the library itself...something it achieves not through polemic but by telling stories. Rich, meticulous and impressive... Its sweep is quite astonishing. -- Rachel Cooke * OBSERVER *Intriguing...Unforgettable -- Christopher Hart * SUNDAY TIMES *Richard Ovenden, the Bodleian Librarian, is admirably obsessed with that destruction: the stuff lost for ever . . . This book might easily have turned into a cumbersome diatribe. It is instead a compendium of intriguing stories that collectively deliver a stark warning: "The truth itself is under attack." * The Times (Saturday Review), Philosophy and Ideas Book of the Year 2020 *Both timely and authoritative...The subject of archives and libraries is one of permanent importance in the understanding a nation has of itself, and touches not only high politics but also life-and-death drama. I can think of no-one better qualified to write about it than Richard Ovenden. I enjoyed Burning the Books immensely. -- PHILIP PULLMANBURNING THE BOOKS is fascinating, thought-provoking and very timely. No one should keep quiet about this library history. -- IAN HISLOPA stark and important warning about the value of knowledge and the dangers that come from the destruction of books. Vital reading for this day and age. -- PETER FRANKOPANA magnificent book - timely, vital and full of the most incredible tales, a manifesto for our humanity and its archives -- PHILIPPE SANDSThis fascinating and moving book should be read at schools and translated into languages all around the world . . . a glorious celebration of physical libraries and nuanced knowledge -- ELIF SHAFAK * New Statesman *Like an epic film-maker, Richard Ovenden unfolds vivid scenes from three millennia of turbulent history, to mount passionate arguments for the need to preserve the records of the past - and of the present. This urgent, lucid book calls out to us all to recognise and defend one of our most precious public goods - libraries and archives. -- MARINA WARNEREngaging and timely . . . Ovenden stays true to his calling, reminding us that libraries and librarians are the keepers of humankind's memories: without them, we don't know who we are -- Jonathan Freedland * Guardian *As director of the Bodleian Library Ovenden is well-placed to deliver this devastating take on the erosion of knowledge and the importance of libraries as a physical space -- 75 of the best books for autumn * Independent *A galvanising manifesto for the importance of physical libraries in our increasingly digital age * The Bookseller *Ovenden moves effortlessly through the centuries and around the world . . . it is hard not to see him and his fellow librarians as warriors and freedom fighters, the unsung heroes of the high streets -- Frances Wilson * Standpoint *This book should stir us to thinking and to action - against censorship, against careless loss, and for the preservation of the memory of where we came from and of our right to be where we are -- Michael Skapinker * Financial Times *Fascinating and rewarding . . . Ovenden's finest achievement in Burning the Books is to demonstrate the importance and enduring power of preserved knowledge . . . [his] professional expertise and personal passion are evident on every page -- Timothy W Ryback * Literary Review *[Ovenden] brings us on an erudite, frightening and often exhilarating journey . . . a fascinating, often entertaining and surprising, incredibly well-researched and beautifully written book. It is an important book, now more than ever * Irish Times *A passionate defence of the sanctity of knowledge . . . the author's passion and authority come across on every page . . . Reading Burning the Books is, by turns, a distressing and illuminating experience. It is distressing because Ovenden shows humanity at its philistine worst throughout history . . . But it is also illuminating because of his partisan celebration of those figures like Bodley who have prized the written word and its preservation as being a civilised end in itself * The Critic *Excellent . . . both gripping and horrifying in equal measure * The Field *Lucidly and engagingly written . . . powerful -- Rhodri Lewis * Prospect Magazine *You expect librarians to have plenty of good stories, but perhaps not to be burning with passion. This erudite, urgent book is full of both * Sunday Times (Culture) *Thought-provoking and relentlessly engaging * Methodist Recorder *Wide-ranging and informative . . . calling out to the better angels of our nature to fight for the preservation of what makes us who we are * New Statesman *

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Book SynopsisTV presenter Graham Hancock''s multi-million bestseller Fingerprints of the Gods remains an astonishing, deeply controversial, wide-ranging investigation of the mysteries of our past and the evidence for Earth''s lost civilization. Twenty years on, Hancock returns with a book filled with completely new, scientific and archaeological evidence, which has only recently come to light...The evidence revealed in this book shows beyond reasonable doubt that an advanced civilization that flourished during the Ice Age was destroyed in the global cataclysms between 12,800 and 11,600 years ago.Near the end of the last Ice Age 12,800 years ago, a giant comet that had entered the solar system from deep space thousands of years earlier, broke into multiple fragments. Some of these struck the Earth causing a global cataclysm on a scale unseen since the extinction of the dinosaurs. At least eight of the fragments hit the North American ice cap, while further fragments hit theTrade ReviewA great yarn... [Hancock] is a writer with a first-rate feel for colour and ambience... * Sunday Times *Hancock's book is an absorbing big-picture analysis as well as a cautionary tale. * Nexus Magazine *

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Book SynopsisThe acclaimed book Oliver Stone called “the best account I have read of this tragedy and its significance,” JFK and the Unspeakable details not just how the conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy was carried out, but WHY it was done…and why it still matters today.At the height of the Cold War, JFK risked committing the greatest crime in human history: starting a nuclear war. Horrified by the specter of nuclear annihilation, Kennedy gradually turned away from his long-held Cold Warrior beliefs and toward a policy of lasting peace. But to the military and intelligence agencies in the United States, who were committed to winning the Cold War at any cost, Kennedy’s change of heart was a direct threat to their power and influence. Once these dark “Unspeakable” forces recognized that Kennedy’s interests were in direct opposition to their own, they tagged him as a dangerous traitor, plotted his assassination, and orTrade Review“A remarkable story that changed the way I view the world.”—JAMES BRADLEY, author of Flags of Our Fathers“Arguably the most important book yet written about a U.S. president … Should be required reading for all high school and college students, and anyone who is a registered voter!”—JOHN PERKINS, author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman “The best account I have read of this tragedy and its significance … But don’t take my word for it. Read this extraordinary book and reach your own conclusions.” —OLIVER STONE, director"Jim Douglass has unraveled the story of President Kennedy’s astonishing and little-known turn toward peace, and the reasons why members of his own government felt he must be eliminated. This disturbing, enlightening, and ultimately inspiring book should be read by all Americans. It has the power to change our lives and to set us free."—MARTIN SHEEN“JFK and the Unspeakable is an exceptional achievement. Douglass has made the strongest case so far in the JFK assassination literature as to the Who and the Why of Dallas.”—GERALD McNIGHT, author of Beach of Trust: How the Warren Commission Failed the Nation and Why“Once in a great while a book comes along that both records history and makes it. … An exciting work with the drama of a first-rate thriller.” —MARK LANE, author of Rush to Judgment“Right now, I ask all of you—please please, read JFK and the Unspeakable! I cried all night reading it, and didn’t sleep a wink. It is a book that could make us stand up and change the world, right now. Maybe we can save the world before it blows up. Really.” -- Yoko Ono"In JFK and the Unspeakable Jim Douglass has distilled all the best available research into a very well-documented and convincing portrait of President Kennedy's transforming turn to peace, at the cost of his life. Personally, it has made a very big impact on me. After reading it in Dallas, I was moved for the first time to visit Dealey Plaza. I urge all Americans to read this book and come to their own conclusions about why he died and why -- after fifty years -- it still matters.” -- Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

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Book SynopsisDo you remember Pathé News? Taking the train to the seaside? The purple stains of iodine on the knees of boys in short trousers? Knitted bathing costumes? Then the chances are you were born in or around 1950. To the young people of today, the 1950s seem like another age.But for those born around then, this era of childhood feels like yesterday. This delightful collection of photographic memories will appeal to all who grew up in this post-war decade; they include pictures of children enjoying life out on the streets and bombsites, at home and at school, on holiday and at events. These wonderful period pictures and descriptive captions will bring back this decade of childhood, and jog memories about all aspects of life as it was in post-war Britain.

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Book SynopsisLONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2018 NEW STATESMAN BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2017''The kind of vision the world needs right now...Pankaj Mishra shouldn''t stop thinking'' Christopher de Bellaigue, Financial Times''This is the most astonishing, convincing, and disturbing book I''ve read in years'' Joe Sacco''Urgent, profound and extraordinarily timely'' John BanvilleHow can we explain the origins of the great wave of paranoid hatreds that seem inescapable in our close-knit world - from American ''shooters'' and ISIS to Trump, from a rise in vengeful nationalism across the world to racism and misogyny on social media? In Age of Anger, Pankaj Mishra answers our bewilderment by casting his gaze back to the eighteenth century, before leading us to the present.He shows that as the world became modern those who were unable to fulfil its promises - freedom, stability and prosperity - were increasingly susceptible to demagogues. The many who came late to this new world or were left, or pushed, behind, reacted in horrifyingly similar ways: intense hatred of invented enemies, attempts to re-create an imaginary golden age, and self-empowerment through spectacular violence. It was from among the ranks of the disaffected that the militants of the 19th century arose - angry young men who became cultural nationalists in Germany, messianic revolutionaries in Russia, bellicose chauvinists in Italy, and anarchist terrorists internationally.Today, just as then, the wider embrace of mass politics, technology, and the pursuit of wealth and individualism has cast many more millions adrift in a literally demoralized world, uprooted from tradition but still far from modernity - with the same terrible resultsMaking startling connections and comparisons, Age of Anger is a book of immense urgency and profound argument. It is a history of our present predicament unlike any other.Trade ReviewUrgent, profound and extraordinarily timely -- John BanvilleThis is the most astonishing, convincing, and disturbing book I've read in years * Joe Sacco *Incisive and scary.. a wake-up call -- Nick Fraser * Guardian *Far from reassuring... his vision is unusually broad, accommodating and resistant to categorisation. It is the kind of vision the world needs right now...Pankaj Mishra shouldn't stop thinking. -- Christopher de Bellaigue * Financial Times *This is a framework that pushes aside conventional, familiar divisions of left and right to focus on the profound sense of dislocation and alienation that spawned (and still spawns) movements ranging from fascism to anarchism to nihilism...a short book into which a lot of intellectual history has been packed. -- Laura Miller * Slate *Stimulating... thought-provoking -- Richard Evans * Guardian *A valuable book. Mishra's ideas are bold and initially discomfiting - it's a challenge to look over the head of the latest terrorist and try to dispassionately trace his rage back to Voltaire - but it's undeniably good to stretch intellectual muscles and test your own prejudices. Mishra invites us to hear the ugly, muffled shouts beneath the "drumbeat" of Western civilisation. -- Julie McDowall * Sunday Herald *Mishra reads like a brilliant autodidact, putting to shame the many students who dutifully did the reading for their classes but missed the incandescent fire and penetrating insight in canonical texts... no one has discerned better than Mishra just how far we still are from the top. -- Samuel Moyn * New Republic *Around the world, both East and West, the insurrectionary fury of militants, zealots and populists has overturned the post-Cold-War global consensus. Where does their rage come from, and where will it end? One of the sharpest cultural critics and political analysts releases his landmark "history of the present -- Boyd Tonkin * Newsweek *An original attempt to explain today's paranoid hatreds...Iconoclastic...Mr. Mishra shocks on many levels. * Economist *Along with quotations from Voltaire, Rousseau, and other familiar figures of Western Civ, Age of Anger includes observations from Iranian, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and other nations' scholars; their perspectives complement Mishra's deep understanding of global tensions....In probing for the wellspring of today's anger he hits on something real -- Peter Coy * Bloomberg Businessweek *Provocative...We'll need new philosophical frameworks to understand the phenomenon of political anger in a global perspective; what's fascinating about Mishra's novel reading is that it draws on familiar philosophical and literary touchstones while turning them on their head...A brilliant work -- Eric Banks * Bookforum *A disturbing but imperatively urgent analysis -- Bryce Christensen * Booklist *A probing, well-informed investigation of global unrest calling for 'truly transformative thinking' about humanity's future * Kirkus Reviews *Sensitive and illuminating....Makes a powerful case for the influence of a certain group of anti-rational and anti-commercial ideas which have influenced our world.,..Mishra's contribution is to show us how these ideas have become 'viral' and what that means for all of us. -- Jonathan Steinberg * The Spectator *Incisive...Age of Anger, which was completed after the Brexit vote but before Trump's victory, reminds us that the dialectical movement between these two poles - between a desire to be oneself and a desire to belong to something larger than oneself - has been a feature of Western political life since the Enlightenment -- Justin E.H. Smith * Harper’s *Pankaj Mishra's Age of Anger...exemplifies his characteristic eloquence and erudition...Leaders who are struggling to process the present backlash against core aspects of globalization would do well to heed Mishra's plea to "remember the irreducible human being, her or his fears, desires, and resentments." -- Ali Wyne * The National Interest *An impressively probing and timely work...Highly engaging * Publishers Weekly *Scintillating...Age of Anger looks an awful lot like a masterwork. We're only a few weeks into 2017, but one of the books of the year is already here -- Christopher Bray * The Tablet *

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Book SynopsisA fascinating analysis of the evolution of religion from the internationally renowned evolutionary psychologistWhen did humans develop spiritual thought? What is religion''s evolutionary purpose? And in our increasingly secular world, why has it endured?Every society in the history of humanity has lived with religion. In How Religion Evolved, evolutionary psychologist Professor Robin Dunbar tracks its origins back to what he terms the ''mystical stance'' - the aspect of human psychology that predisposes us to believe in a transcendent world, and which makes an encounter with the spiritual possible. As he explores world religions and their many derivatives, as well as religions of experience practised by hunter-gatherer societies since time immemorial, Dunbar argues that this instinct is not a peculiar human quirk, an aberration on our otherwise efficient evolutionary journey. Rather, religion confers an advantage: it can benefit our individual health anTrade ReviewStimulating and hugely ambitious... A compelling intellectual workout. Dunbar offers a powerful central argument, an excellent survey of alternative theories and a wide range of vivid and illuminating examples... The story he tells is important to us all -- Matthew Reisz * Observer *Dunbar's intellectual interests are far-ranging, and he is as sure-footed talking about human cognition as congregation sizes... How Religion Evolved is learned, readable and sweeping (in the best sense of that word)... Hard to argue with -- Nick Spencer * Financial Times *When one of the most creative, insightful, and versatile evolutionary thinkers of our time turns his scientific gaze toward religion, it is no surprise that he delivers a landmark book that completely reshapes our understanding of religious belief, experience, and practice. In How Religion Evolved, Dunbar not only raises fundamental questions that previous scholars of religion have ignored, he offers novel solutions in a comprehensive narrative that is as engaging as it is informative. A gifted scientist and writer has given anyone interested in religion a genuine gift -- Richard Sosis, James Barnett Professor of Humanistic Anthropology, University of ConnecticutA book with impressive intellectual sweep -- Clive Cookson * Financial Times *

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Book SynopsisOne of our most celebrated historians shows how we can use the lessons of the past to build a new post-covid society in BritainThe ''duty of care'' which the state owes to its citizens is a phrase much used, but what has it actually meant in Britain historically? And what should it mean in the future, once the immediate Covid crisis has passed?In A Duty of Care, Peter Hennessy divides post-war British history into BC (before covid) and AC (after covid). He looks back to Sir William Beveridge''s classic identification of the ''five giants'' against which society had to battle - want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness - and laid the foundations for the modern welfare state in his wartime report. He examines the steady assault on the giants by successive post-war governments and asks what the comparable giants are now. He lays out the ''road to 2045'' with ''a new Beveridge'' to build a consensus for post-covid Britain with the ambition and on the scal

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Book SynopsisThis updated and enhanced second edition of History and International Relations charts the foundations, development and use of International Relations from a historian's perspective. Exploring its engagement with the history of war, peace and foreign relations this volume provides an account of international relations from both western and non-western perspectives, its historical evolution and its contemporary practice. Examining the origin of dominant IR theories, exploring key moments in the history of war and peace that shaped the discipline, and analysing the Eurocentric nature of current theory and practice, Malchow provides a full account of the relationship between history and IR from the ancient world to modern times. To bring it up to the present day and provide new ways for students to grasp the history of IR, this new edition includes:-An updated final chapter reflecting on the practice of IR in a post 9/11 world -New scholarship and sources in IR practice and theory Trade ReviewI use the current edition in my International Relations theory course and highly recommend it to my political science students because of its conversation between history and political science. This book works well in a variety of political science and history courses. * Kristin Shockley, Professor of Political Science, Florida Atlantic University, USA *It is extremely well-written, readable, and provides valuable insight into the evolution of International Relations as a discipline and how history fits in to that evolution. I see this text as… the best, most accessible source there is out there at the moment. * David J. Proctor, Senior Lecturer of History, Tufts University, USA *[This book is] very concise and comprehensive and extremely well organized. There are a number of introductory International Relations texts but this one is unique in its broadly historical approach to the discipline. * Joseph A. Maiolo, Professor of International History, King’s College London, United Kingdom *Table of ContentsIntroduction: History and the Discipline(s) of International Relations I. The History of a Discipline: Origins, Theory, and Tools 1. From the First World War to the Early Cold War 2. After Morgenthau: Scientific Realism and Its Critics 3. IR, the Other Social Sciences, and the State II. IR and International History 4. The Ancient World: Thucydides and the Search for Origins 5. Toward the Machiavellian Moment: IR's Middle Ages 6. The Sovereign State and the “Westphalian System” in Early- Modern Europe 7. Nation, State, and Empire in the Long Nineteenth Century 8. The Failure of the New (and Old) Diplomacy and the End of European Hegemony 9. Cold War and Post-Cold War III. Contemporary IR and the Uses of History 10. Civilizations, the Myth of Sovereignty, and the Democratic Peace: The End of IR (As We Know It)? Afterword: tbc History of International Relations: A timeline Glossary of terms Bibliography Index

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