History Books

Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE''Remarkable ... this brilliant book stands as an important monument to an almost forgotten world'' William Dalrymple, Spectator A sweeping, magisterial new history of India from the middle ages to the arrival of the BritishThe Indian subcontinent might seem a self-contained world. Protected by vast mountains and seas, it has created its own religions, philosophies and social systems. And yet this ancient land experienced prolonged and intense interaction with the peoples and cultures of East and Southeast Asia, Europe, Africa and, especially, Central Asia and the Iranian plateau between the eleventh and eighteenth centuries. Richard M. Eaton''s wonderful new book tells this extraordinary story with relish and originality. His major theme is the rise of ''Persianate'' culture - a many-faceted transregional world informed by a canon of texts that circulated through ever-wideningTrade ReviewRemarkable... Richard Eaton's brilliant book stands as an important monument to this almost forgotten world. -- William Dalrymple * The Spectator *By rethinking this history as India's 'Persianate age', Eaton breaks free from religious sectarianism that projects today's tensions into the past ... His book is a fine tribute to India. -- Tanjil Rashid * The Times *A brilliant, gripping, refreshing and scholarly history of India from 1000AD to the 1750s, analysing the power of the Delhi Sultanate, the Mogul Empire, its rise and decline and the rise of the East India Company - totally essential reading. -- Simon Sebag MontefioreGenius ... India in the Persianate Age is Eaton's mature masterpiece. It will, undoubtedly, become the authoritative account of this most politically controversial period of South Asia's long history. -- Katherine Schofield * History Today *A richly researched, badly needed and wholly convincing account ... World history proves its worth. -- John Keay * Literary Review *Richard Eaton employs rich empirical detail to demonstrate that intellectual encounters between the Sanksrit and Persian worlds were not tied to any one religion and that the two were not hostile ... and does so with great panache. -- Rudrangshu Mukherjee * Business Standard *

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Book Synopsis''Masterfully opens up a little explored realm: how the quest for religion and spirituality drives hundreds of millions of Chinese'' Pankaj Mishra''A fascinating odyssey ... a nuanced group portrait of Chinese citizens striving for non-material answers in an era of frenetic materialism'' Julia Lovell, Guardian ''The reappearance and flourishing of religion is perhaps the most surprising aspect of the dramatic changes in China in recent decades...this is a beautiful, moving and insightful book'' Michael SzonyiIn no society on Earth was there such a ferocious attempt to eradicate all trace of religion as in modern China. But now, following a century of violent antireligious campaigns, China is awash with new temples, churches, and mosques - as well as cults, sects, and politicians trying to harness religion for their own ends. Driving this explosion of faith is uncertainty - over what it means to be Chinese, and how to live aTrade ReviewIan Johnson has long been a resourceful and bracing guide to the biggest national transformation of modern history. In The Souls of China he masterfully opens up a little explored realm: how the quest for religion and spirituality drives hundreds of millions of Chinese -- Pankaj MishraJohnson succeeds in having produced a nuanced group portrait of Chinese citizens striving for non-material answers in an era of frenetic materialism. -- Julia Lovell * Guardian *Extraordinarily rich and intimate... This vividly written, deeply researched book will be the primary work about religious faith in China for years to come. -- Leslie T. ChangThis entrancing and engaging book challenges the modern assumption that religion is a thing of the past -- Karen ArmstrongIan Johnson breaks new ground with a brilliant approach, mixing theoretical explorations with real life vignettes from a convincing insider-outsider-combined perspective, making them commenting each other, illuminating in the same way as through the traditional Chinese criticism paradigm of 'I commentate the six classics which commentate me.' The Souls of China is a must read for an understanding of China -- Qiu Xiaolong * author of The Inspector Chen Novels *The great Chinese writer Lu Xun once wrote that when many men pass along the same way, a new road is made. The Souls of China shows us how the Chinese people, some with heroic steps and others with hesitant ones, are making a new road for Chinese religion in the twenty-first century. The reappearance and flourishing of religion is perhaps the most surprising aspect of the dramatic changes in China in recent decades. With great sensitivity Ian Johnson guides us on a tour of the rituals, festivals, and above all some of the remarkable characters who make up this new Chinese religious world. This is a beautiful, moving and insightful book -- Michael Szonyi * author of Cold War Island *The Souls of China is a rich, informative, and timely book, which explores a major aspect of Chinese life. Ian Johnson carries erudition lightly and describes the people and events with deep insights and personal involvement. Section by section, the writing shows long-term dedication and meticulous research. At heart this is also a personal book, full of feelings and exuberance. It's a tremendous accomplishment -- Ha JinHis tripartite masterpiece Wild Grass and his newest book, The Souls of China, are the most remarkable works to come from a western author in the past two decades. -- Liao Yiwu * exiled Chinese author of God is Red: The Secret Story of How Christianity Survived and Flourished in Communist China *Through interviews conducted with a wide variety of practitioners, Johnson paints a vivid picture of the diversity of Chinese religious life....He provides a fascinating account of how traditional activities recovered after enduring severe repression during China's Cultural Revolution (1966-76). An excellent work that is highly recommended for readers interested in Chinese culture or religion * Library Journal *

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Book SynopsisFollowing the award-winning BBC Radio 4 series, a panoramic exploration of peoples, objects and beliefs from the celebrated author of A History of the World in 100 Objects and Germany''Riveting, extraordinary ... tells the sweeping story of religious belief in all its inventive variety. The emphasis is not on our differences, but on shared spiritual yearnings'' Rachel Campbell-Johnston, The Times, Books of the YearOne of the central facts of human existence is that every society shares a set of beliefs and assumptions - a faith, an ideology, a religion - that goes far beyond the life of the individual. These beliefs are an essential part of a shared identity. They have a unique power to define - and to divide - us, and are a driving force in the politics of much of the world today. Throughout history they have most often been, in the widest sense, religious.Yet this book is not a history of religion, nor an argument inTrade ReviewThe David Attenborough of things that don't move ... Think of it as his Blue Planet -- Bryan Appleyard * Sunday Times *He shows how human beings have always used religion and objects as a way to understand the world around us, from finding some accommodation with light, water and the seasons, to attempting to find some approach towards death. ... Anyone wishing to deepen, if not change their life, will certainly benefit from this remarkable book -- Douglas Murray * Evening Standard *A mind-expanding book -- John Carey * Sunday Times *

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Book Synopsis''This exciting and provocative book blows apart misconceptions about the Russian past'' Lara Douds, Times Higher Education Russia is an exceptional country, the biggest in the world. It is both European and exotic, powerful and weak, brilliant and flawed. Why are we so afraid of it? Time and again, we judge Russia by unique standards. We have usually assumed that it possesses higher levels of cunning, malevolence and brutality. Yet the country has more often than not been a crucial ally, not least against Napoleon and in the two world wars. We admire its music and its writers. We lavish praise on the Russian soul. And still we think of Russia as a unique menace. What is it about this extraordinary country that consistently provokes such excessive responses? And why is this so dangerous?Ranging from the earliest times to the present, Mark B. Smith''s remarkable new book is a history of this ''Russia Anxiety''. Whether ally or enemy, superpower or failing state, Russia grips our imagination and fuels our fears unlike any other country. This book shows how history itself offers a clearer view and a better future.Trade ReviewA fluent meditation on Russian history, a gallant attempt to reason with those who believe that Russia is condemned to an endless cycle of failed reform and resurgent authoritarianism ... a welcome antidote to the overwrought stuff about Russia so widespread in the West today. -- Rodric Braithwaite * History Today *Compelling... Russian history is many layered, Smith argues, and the deeper we dig the more apparent it becomes that the tropes of Russophobic history bear little or no relation to reality ... As a Russian history specialist, he deploys his deep knowledge of the country's culture, society and peoples to capture with verve and imagination the grand sweep of its history, and combines this with an astute commentary on contemporary politics. -- Geoffrey Roberts * Irish Times *Fizzing with energy, Mark B. Smith's book explodes many myths about the Russians and compels us to reflect critically on ourselves. -- Simon Dixon, author of Catherine the GreatIn this exciting and provocative book, Mark B. Smith blows apart misconceptions about the Russian past ... Smith's energy and dynamism carry the day. -- Lara Douds * Times Higher Education *The author is a highly informed guide, [who] prompts a review of prejudices ... Smith makes an important fundamental point: we must talk to the Russians and live alongside them. -- Max Hastings * The Times *Smith makes a very strong case that Russia's past needs to be considered as much more complex than it generally is. For that reason alone, this book deserves a large audience ... The Russia Anxiety is a very welcome book. It provides a provocative and much needed analysis of Russian history which ably shows the oversimplified nature of most Western understandings of Russia. -- Paul Robinson, author of RUSSIAN CONSERVATISM and Professor of History at the University of OttawaThe Russia Anxiety is a valuable effort to assess the long history of the West's Russia-related worries ... Regrettably, more than five years [since the annexation of Crimea], the United States seems no closer to developing either a strategy or a policy to manage its relationship with Russia. Mark Smith's provocative book won't solve that problem alone, but it does offer some valuable guidance in thinking about solutions. -- Paul Saunders * Russia Matters *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA brilliant writer with a polymathic range. With The Anxious Triumph, he has produced a magnum opus, an accessible and genuinely global history of the transformative but unstable capitalist phenomenon. ... This is a book for today and tomorrow. -- Harold James * Financial Times *It is hugely erudite: everyone can learn from it. -- Paul Collier * New Statesman *Sassoon offers us a sprawling map, studded with fascinating details. ... It is quirkily brilliant -- Adam Tooze * Guardian *He is no apologist. His comprehensive account of the origins of modern capitalism make clear the human cost of a system of institutionalised greed -- Iain Macwhirter * Herald *

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Book SynopsisFrom the acclaimed author of John F. Kennedy: An Unfinished Life, the biography of one of America''s greatest presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt.''Meticulously researched and authoritative, heroically objective and wide-angled ... Roosevelt is with us again in Dallek''s outstanding cradle-to-grave study'' Douglas Brinkley, Washington Post''Assuredly the best single-volume Roosevelt biography'' Eric Rauchway, The Times Literary Supplement''Essential ... a master of the presidential biography captures Roosevelt''s compassion and sense of solidarity'' Greg Grandin, Guardian''An insightful, incisive and intelligent one-volume work - and a pointed primer on how things in Washington get done. In a period defined by division, Dallek crafts a pointillist portrait of the four-term president, who knew almost intuitively how to reach consensus'' Peter M. Gianotti, NewsdayTrade ReviewMeticulously researched and authoritative ... Roosevelt is with us again in Dallek's outstanding cradle-to-grave study -- Douglas Brinkley * Washington Post *A landmark work that deserves to be placed on the same shelf as those of Arthur Schlesinger Jr., James MacGregor Burns, and William E. Leuchtenburg -- Richard Moe

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Book Synopsis''This is a funny, pointed love letter to Texas, at once elegiac and clear-eyed'' Ben Macintyre, The Times From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower, God Save Texas is a journey through the most controversial state in America.Texas is a Republican state in the heart of Trumpland that hasn''t elected a Democrat to a statewide office in more than twenty years; but it is also a state in which minorities already form a majority (including the largest number of Muslim adherents in the United States). The cities are Democrat and among the most diverse in the nation. Oil is still king but Texas now leads California in technology exports and has an economy only somewhat smaller than Australia''s.Lawrence Wright has written an enchanting book about what is often seen as an unenchanting place. Having spent most of his life there, while remaining deeply aware of its oddities, Wright is as charmed by Texan foibles and landscapes as

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Book SynopsisThe acclaimed Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England''s rulers - now in paperbackCharles II has always been one of the most instantly recognisable British kings - both in his physical appearance, disseminated through endless portraits, prints and pub signs, and in his complicated mix of lasciviousness, cynicism and luxury. His father''s execution and his own many years of exile made him a guarded, curious, unusually self-conscious ruler. He lived through some of the most striking events in the national history - from the Civil Wars to the Great Plague, from the Fire of London to the wars with the Dutch.Clare Jackson''s marvellous book takes full advantage of its irrepressible subject.

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Book Synopsis''A fascinating and timely account of the current crisis in the relationship between Russia and the United States'' Daniel Beer, The New York Times''Could not be more timely ... crucial reading for anyone interested in what''s happening inside Putin''s head'' Oliver Bullough, ProspectA revelatory, behind-the-scenes account of Russian-American relations, from a former US ambassador and ''Obama''s top White House advisor on Russia policy'' (The New York Times)In 2008, when Michael McFaul was asked to leave his perch at Stanford and join President-elect Barack Obama''s national security team, he had no idea that he would find himself at the beating heart of one of today''s most contentious international relationships. McFaul had been studying and visiting Russia for decades, becoming one of America''s preeminent scholars on the country during the first Putin era.During President Obama''s fTrade ReviewMike McFaul gives us a broad, thoughtful analysis of a critical shift in world affairs. Read From Cold War to Hot Peace for timely, informative, and intriguing insights on changing US-Russia relations. -- George P. Shultz, former Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan (1982-1989)As both a first-hand observer and a key participant in many of the recent events that have shaped US-Russia relations, Ambassador McFaul has an important story to tell. From Cold War to Hot Peace is a gripping and intensely personal account of one of the most complex and consequential geopolitical developments of our time. -- Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State under Bill Clinton (1997-2001)Mike McFaul has lived history. In this terrific book, he recounts a pivotal time in U.S.-Russian relations, bringing the perspective of a central participant and one of America's finest scholars of Russian politics. This book will be valued by students, experts, historians and diplomats for years to come -- Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State under George W. Bush (2005-2009)This is an indispensable book. McFaul is a candid and insightful guide to the history, personalities, and politics that continue to shape one of America's most consequential relationships -- Hillary Rodham Clinton, former Secretary of State under Barack Obama (2009-2013)Careful about providing evidence for his hard-earned opinions, the Stanford professor is always clear and successfully assesses the level of complexity we lay-readers need to understand academic theories about revolutions and economics... Persuasive and convincing * Christian Science Monitor *Michael McFaul left his posting as the US ambassador in Moscow in February 2014, as the Russian annexation of the Crimea inaugurated the worst crisis in the East-West relations in generation. In this thoughtful and clearly written account McFaul, one of the architects of President Obama's "reset" policy vis-à-vis Moscow, provides a unique insight in the chain of events that ended the new 'détente" and put the two nuclear superpowers on the brink of a new Cold War. This is a must read for everyone who wants to understand contemporary Russia and the dangerous world we live in today. -- Serhii Plokhy, Harvard University, author of Chernobyl: History of a TragedyImpressive... a candid expert account ... McFaul is a senior policymaker both hugely knowledgeable about and admiring of Russia ... Essential reading * Financial Times *McFaul's lively memoir is an up-close account of how Washington tried to find common ground with a Kremlin crippled by suspicion... McFaul comes at Putin from a special corner: as a boyish enthusiast for engagement with Russia. [...] As a young academic he was hungry to know about how the Soviet Union was going to break up. As an evangelist for democratic change he made contact with dissidents. And then, as special assistant to the president and ambassador, he was behind Barack Obama's 'reset' of relations with Russia * The Times *McFaul sheds needed light on the most geopolitically competitive relationship of the last 75 years * Guardian *Vigorously argued...McFaul's contribution to the debate is significant, based on his experience as a political practitioner as well as an academic analyst * Washington Post *An invaluable memoir -- David RemnickMcFaul provides useful insights into the changing relationship between America and Russia in this smart, personable mix of memoir and political analysis... an essential volume for those trying to understand one of the U.S.'s most significant current rivals * Publisher's Weekly *Of interest to observers of the unfolding constitutional crisis as well as of Russia's place in the international order * Kirkus *In From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin's Russia, Michael McFaul examines how U.S.-Russia relations have evolved since 1989. He draws on history as well as the unique perspective he gained while serving as an ambassador. Given what's going on in the world, this book couldn't be more timely * Bustle *An engaging, well-penned account of McFaul's days in Moscow * MacLeans *

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Book SynopsisThe acclaimed Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England''s rulers - now in paperbackEdward I (1272-1307) is one of the most commanding of all English rulers. He fought in southwest France, in Wales, In Scotland and in northern France, he ruled with ruthlessness and confidence, undoing the chaotic failure of his father, Henry III''s reign. He reshaped England''s legal system and came close to bringing the whole island of Great Britain under his rule. He promoted the idea of himself as the new King Arthur, his Round Table still hanging in Winchester Castle to this day. His greatest monuments are the extraordinary castles - Caernarfon, Beaumaris, Harlech and Conwy - built to ensure his rule of Wales and some of the largest of all medieval buildings.Andy King''s brilliant short biography brings to life a strange, complex man whose triumphs raise all kinds of questions about the nature of kingship - how could someone who established so many key elements in England''s unique legal and parliamentary system also have been such a harsh, militarily brutal warrior?

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThis book snaps, crackles and pops ... Readers will emerge from this heady blend of economic, business, and political history with a sense of exhilaration that so much of the American experience could be described so vividly and insightfully -- Robert Gordon * Financial Times *Capitalism in America makes a strong case, with some wonderful insights into business history. Innovation, spread to the masses, is indeed the engine of capitalist economies. * The Economist *A superbly written book ... the tone is businesslike but culturally savvy - with sociological themes from "America's urban nightmare" of the seventies and eighties to "the rising share of working women" handled with sensitivity and skill ... Capitalism in America is an inspiring, rip-roaring read - like the astonishing story it describes. -- Liam Halligan * The Daily Telegraph *

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Book Synopsis''He had brought nothing but trouble to the navy: how would he fare as King?''Known as the ''Sailor King'', William IV was sent to join the navy by his father to discipline him, but instead became notorious for his calamitous years of service, his debts and his relationship with the actress Mrs Jordan. Yet, as Roger Knight''s biography shows, William also helped see the country through the great constitutional crisis of its age, enabling the smooth succession of his niece Victoria.

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Book SynopsisThe second edition of the definitive book on how modern Japan works, now fully updated up to include the new ''Reiwa'' Era and the year of the Olympics''A superb book that, better than any other I have read, manages to get the reader inside the skin of Japanese society ... astutely observed ... a great read brimming with insights'' Japan TimesDespite years of stagnation, Japan remains one of the world''s largest economies and a country which exerts a remarkable cultural fascination. David Pilling''s new book is an entertaining, deeply knowledgeable and surprising analysis of a group of islands which have shown great resilience, both in the face of financial distress and when confronted with the overwhelming disaster of the 2011 earthquake and resulting tsunami.Bending Adversity is a superb work of reportage and the essential book even for those who already feel they know the country well.

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Book Synopsis''One of the most important books I''ve read in years'' Brian EnoWe are losing the commons. Austerity and neoliberal policies have depleted our shared wealth; our national utilities have been sold off to foreign conglomerates, social housing is almost non-existent, our parks are cordoned off for private events and our national art galleries are sponsored by banks and oil companies. This plunder deprives us all of our common rights, recognized as far back as the Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forest of 1217, to share fairly and equitably in our public wealth.Guy Standing leads us through a new appraisal of the commons, stemming from the medieval concept of common land reserved in ancient law from marauding barons, to his modern reappraisal of the resources we all hold in common - a brilliant new synthesis that crystallises quite how much public wealth has been redirected to the 1% in recent decades through the state-approved exploitation of everything from Trade ReviewBrilliant, insightful, terse, apposite, daring, and transformative. A must read to understand both the past and the future -- Danny Dorling, author of All That Is SolidGuy Standing brings great historical knowledge, political insight, and passion to documenting the market enclosures of our common wealth: the great unacknowledged scourge of our time. Plunder of the Commons is both a troubling exposé and a practical-minded call to reclaim the commons for ourselves and posterity. Sitting politicians will ignore this stirring book at their peril. Incoming reformers will learn how we might transform our predatory system of economics and the complicit political culture. -- David Bollier, Director of the Reinventing the Commons Program at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics and author of Free, Fair and Alive: The Insurgent Power of the CommonsIn an era of intensifying privatisation, we're rapidly losing sight of the idea that there are things that can be shared communally without being owned by anybody, things that stand outside of the market system - for example rivers, forests, and other natural resources. Many of them have already been sold off to private interests, and most of the rest are being pursued. This incendiary book exposes this process and explores its corrosive effect on society and resource maintenance. This clear and radical exposition is a call for the defence of the commons, and one of the most important books I've read in years. -- Brian EnoIn this majestic work, Guy Standing not only chronicles the historic plundering of our common wealth. More importantly, he shows how we can reclaim that wealth to address our most urgent contemporary problems: economic insecurity and ecological destruction. This is history, analysis and vision, all at their very best. -- Peter Barnes, author of Capitalism 3.0Standing not only wants to remind us how much common land in Britain has been enclosed by the wealthy few. His vision of the commons is extremely capacious...his provocation could hardly be timelier -- Duncan Kelly * Financial Times *

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Book Synopsis''Many books claim to tell an unknown story of the Second World War. Few of them actually do. Forgotten Bastards is a rare exception . . . This is gripping history'' Duncan Weldon, Prospect A riveting story of World War II from the author of Chernobyl, winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for non-fictionIn November 1943, with the outcome of the Second World War hanging in the balance, the Allies needed a new plan. The Americans'' audacious suggestion to the Soviets was to open a second air front, with the US Air Force establishing bases in Soviet-controlled territory. Despite Stalin''s obvious reservations about the presence of foreign troops in Russia, he was persuaded. Operation Baseball and then Frantic were initiated in early 1944 as B-17 Superfortresses were flown from bases in Italy to the Poltova region in today''s Ukraine. Award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy tells the gripping, little-known story of this encounter bTrade ReviewPlokhy is an expert guide, marshalling the archival and memoir material skilfully and telling his story with flair * The Times *Many books claim to tell an "unknown" story of the Second World War. Few of them actually do. Forgotten Bastards of the Eastern Front is a rare exception. . . Plokhy is at his best when he turns to the human level, the culture clash experienced by US servicemen finding themselves inside Stalin's USSR under constant surveillance from the secret police -- Duncan Weldon * Prospect *Serhii Plokhy's fascinating account of American airmen operating in the Soviet Union toward the end of WWII is not only superb history. It is an important and timely reminder, seventy five years later, that victory in WWII involved allying with Stalinism and all its attendant evils -- Alex Kershaw, author of The First WaveA riveting read that brings together a unique story about American airmen on Soviet territory and US-Soviet wartime politics on the highest level. Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill and key events in World War II diplomacy are seamlessly woven into a compelling tale of the dramatic feats and fates of US servicemen in contact and conflict with their Soviet male and female 'comrades in arms.' At once utterly absorbing, enlightening and moving, this splendid book also unearths absolutely original evidence about the values wars that launched the Cold War even as the hot one was raging -- Nina Tumarkin, Professor of History and Director of Russian Area Studies, Wellesley CollegeA new and enlightening perspective on the collaboration between Soviet and American airmen in Ukraine during their mutual fight against the Nazis, taking the reader onto the airbases to show how cultural differences and the oppressive political oversight of the Russians ate away at the effort from early on. Using detailed accounts not previously available, Forgotten Bastards of the Eastern Front shows how the interpersonal relationships of Americans and Soviets at ground level were as important as any maneuvering by their country's leaders. An insightful account of a little-known story -- Gregory Freeman, author of The Forgotten 500Five stars. . . brilliantly researched * Daily Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisTrade Reviewoutstanding ... Otte's colossal, learned and measured book presents a powerful case for the defence ... It is true that Grey failed to avert war, but probably nobody could have succeeded. As Otte's excellent book shows, he did his best. -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times *No biography of Grey has ever been so thorough and scholarly as this -- Simon Heffer * Sunday Telegraph *If you read just one book of history this Christmas, it should be T.G. Otte's re-evaluation in Statesman of Europe: A Life of Sir Edward Grey. This beautifully written biography of one of the most humane, perceptive and intelligent diplomats is a wistful reminder of what Britain might have been like if Lloyd George had not destroyed the Liberal party. -- Jonathan Sumption * Spectator Books of the Year *a magisterial account that is unlikely to be bettered -- Martin Pugh * Times Literary Supplement *T.G. Otte's Statesman of Europe: A Life of Sir Edward Grey is magnificent - its depth of analysis formidable and its humanity moving. -- Allan Mallinson * Spectator Books of the Year *a very well written and comprehensive ... This scholarly, readable and objective book will be the standard biography of Sir Edward Grey for decades to come. It triumphantly gives him his proper desserts as an eminent Edwardian gentleman who did his best to save his country from what he knew would be a catastrophic war -- Andrew Roberts * The Critic *In Statesman of Europe T.G. Otte brings Grey to the fore, presenting his life as "a useful prism through which the disruptions that produced modern Britain are thrown into sharper relief." Along the way, he takes up questions of crisis management and great-power rivalry that are still pressing today ... Otte, a leading British historian of diplomacy, emphasizes the complexity of Grey's personality along with the complexity of the problems he tried to manage ... . Otte, a deft chronicler and shrewd analyst, makes a strong case for Edward Grey as a great statesman-not least in his pursuit of what we would today call multilateralism -- William Anthony Hay * Wall Street Journal *In Statesman of Europe - the first full biography for half a century - T. G. Otte offers a sensitive and elegant portrait of our longest-serving foreign secretary (11 years on the trot): a politician whose principled pragmatism and sense of civic duty strike an appealing, if elegiac, note in 2020. -- David Reynolds * New Statesman Books of the Year *Thomas Otte, in this compendious and elegant biography, paints a portrait of a deeply moral, patient and conscientious figure who did not love the world of high politics, but felt it his duty to pursue a role in public life and did so for 48 years. ... Otte's is a rich and rounded portrait of Grey, whom he restore[s] to his place as a humane and dutiful Liberal politician of the old school -- Paul Lay * The Times *This book is a reading for our times. It is a stalwart defence of politics as the careful, sensitive and pragmatic management of constant change, and of political history as an education in these truths ... it makes a significant mark. -- Jonathan Parry * London Review of Books *an outstanding biography, beautifully written, richly documented and persuasively argued ... Otte has given us a superb biography of this important figure. Statesman of Europe is sub-titled A Life of Sir Edward Grey. For the foreseeable future it is likely to be the life of Sir Edward Grey. -- David Dutton * Journal of Liberal History *Otte has already made a name for himself with a series of books and publications on British foreign policy, and this biography, Statesman of Europe (2020), can be regarded as the provisional crown on his work. -- Beatrice de Graaf * NRC Handelsblad *Edward Grey belonged to an era when British foreign policy carried global consequences. Most importantly, in July 1914 he led international efforts to forestall war. In T.G.Otte, Grey has found a historian whose fluency, scholarship and empathy match his subject's principled and pragmatic diplomacy. Otte unravels Grey's enigmas - his marriage, his preference for rural life over politics and above all his thinking on war and peace. In Statesman of Europe, now much the fullest and most authoritative account of Grey's life, he has brought to the man the poise and balance that Grey sought for his country. -- Sir Hew Strachen

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Book Synopsis''History at its scintillating best ... hard-hitting, revelatory and superbly researched'' Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny ''A rare achievement ... sure to become an instant classic'' John Lewis Gaddis, Yale University This gripping book dramatizes the extraordinarily compressed and terrifying period between the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and Hitler''s declaration of war on the United States. These five days transformed much of the world and have shaped our own experience ever since. Simms and Laderman''s aim in the book is to show how this agonizing period had no inevitability about it and that innumerable outcomes were possible. Key leaders around the world were taking decisions with often poor and confused information, under overwhelming pressure and knowing that they could be facing personal and national disaster. And yet, there were also long-standing assumptions that shaped these decisions, bTrade ReviewAbsorbing ... Simms and Laderman give us a visceral sense of these events as they unfolded, in real time, with historical actors not always quite sure what was happening - a dimension of history that is both crucial and fiendishly difficult to recover. * New York Times Book Review *This is history at its scintillating best. The fate of the world tilted on the decisions made in those few days - hours even - in December 1941, and Simms and Laderman brilliantly strip away the many myths surrounding them in this hard-hitting, revelatory and superbly researched work. -- Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with DestinyAn extraordinary reconstruction of the fateful week following Pearl Harbor. -- Adam Tooze * Guardian *A very important book ... Truly eye-opening, myth-busting history. * Aspects of History *In Hitler's American Gamble, Brendan Simms and Charlie Laderman grippingly retell the story of five days that not only shook but also shaped the world... All students of both World War II and the Holocaust will learn, as I did, from their careful use of neglected documents and their attention to 'counterfactuals' that, for contemporaries, were at least as likely as what actually happened. -- Niall FergusonOffers fine, well-researched insights into the psyches of leaders who made decisions that changed the course of world history ... For readers seeking a deeper understanding of the realpolitik that drove Germany to war against America, Hitler's American Gamble offers an outstanding narrative. -- Jonathan W. Jordan * World War 2 Magazine *A rare achievement: a microhistory that's global in scope. Filled with fresh insights, excitingly written, and meticulously documented, Hitler's American Gamble is sure to become an instant classic. -- John Lewis GaddisBrendan Simms and Charlie Laderman show how Hitler's mad decision to declare war on the United States on December 11, 1941 proved suicidal for the Axis, ensured a global catastrophe, and would radically redefine how World War II would end. And yet was Hitler really as unhinged and reckless as it has seemed? ... Hitler's American Gamble is revisionist, but in the best sense of sound research, rare originality, singular analysis, and riveting prose. -- Victor Davis HansonThe authors effectively prove their thesis in a key volume for World War II history collections. -- Michael Farrell * Library Journal *

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE''A masterpiece of biography ... a vivid account of a family at the heart of some of the great cultural shifts of the modern era'' John Gray, New Statesman''The whole of British intellectual life seems accessible through some branch of this sprawling family tree'' The GuardianIn his early twenties, poor, depressed, stranded in the Coral Sea on the seemingly endless survey mission of HMS Rattlesnake, hopelessly in love with the young Englishwoman Henrietta Heathorn, Thomas Henry Huxley was a nobody. And yet together he and Henrietta would return to London and go on to found one of the great intellectual and scientific dynasties of their age.The Huxley family through four generations profoundly shaped how we all see ourselves, as individuals and as a species, one among many. They worked as scientists, novelists, mystics, film-makers, poets and - perhaps above all - as pubTrade ReviewA vivid account of a family at the heart of some of the great cultural shifts of the modern era ... a masterpiece of biography. -- John Gray * New Statesman *An intellectual history of Britain through the radical shifts in science and society that gave birth to modernity ... The whole of British intellectual life seems accessible through some branch of this sprawling family tree. -- Stephen Buranyi * The Guardian *Balancing scholarly rigour with an eye for the absurd, her book reveals the human drama behind scientific fact. * The Economist *What a family, what a story, and so cleverly told. Alison Bashford constructs a narrative that intertwines the lives of four generations of Huxleys, boldly forgoing traditional chronology for illuminating synthesis. Absolutely fascinating. -- Andrea Wulf, author of The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New WorldSuperbly original and evocatively stylish ... Bashford has ingeniously created a loosely chronological account that weaves their own lives and experiences within ever-shifting attitudes towards evolution. -- Patricia Fara * BBC History Magazine *A patient, sympathetic portrait of a family riven with flaws. -- AN Wilson * Spectator *A detailed, nuanced, and superbly written joint biography of the intellectual lineage of the Huxleys ... rich and compelling ... Bashford elegantly reminds us that science has never banished the sacred for the secular, the irrational for the logical. Rather, it creates opportunities for new syntheses, new configurations of life, mind, soul, body, nature, and society. -- Philip Ball * The Lancet *Ambitious, scholarly ... a biography of ideas, using one family's history to explore the development of theories about generations, genealogy and genes, chronicling shifting attitudes to religion, race, women and animal experimentation - from morphology to ethology. -- Annalena McAfee * Financial Times *Lucid, lively and addictive ... a panoramic view of an era of extraordinary and accelerated change ... a celebration of intellectual bravery. -- Morag Fraser * Inside Story *I was captivated from beginning to end by the richness of the detail, the flaws and all personal biographies and most of all blown away by the intimate narrative of how the biggest science stories of the age had a Huxley as ringmaster or provocateur at their heart. -- Tim SmitDaring and joyously intelligent ... It is an astounding achievement that Bashford has transformed such a super-abundance of material into a richly rewarding and comprehensible book. The Huxleys brings the reader into easy familiarity with great minds at work. -- Richard Davenport-Hines * Wall Street Journal *Full of surprises on every page, this book makes you wonder why all history can't have the engaging intimacy of a novel. Bashford brilliantly marries intellectual history with the story of four generations of a great family in a literary tour de force. -- Professor Jim Secord, author of Visions of ScienceOver three generations, the extraordinary Huxley family have changed and reshaped the way we see ourselves. Now Alison Bashford has written a fascinating book that links T H Huxley, the great Victorian scientist with a Caribbean-born wife, to their remarkable grandchildren, Aldous and Julian, in a way that shows how the family struggled with depression and even lunacy while emphasising the crucial role played by the wives, sisters and daughters of these strange and brilliant men. It's a wonderful and important story, one that held me enthralled from start to end. -- Miranda SeymourPacked with insights into the brilliance of three generations of the Huxley family, Bashford's book tells a magnificent story about the huge personalities and shortcomings that propelled evolutionary science and much else besides. Male and female, from Victorian patriarch to zoo director, authors, lovers, and poets: the pages dance with accounts of contemporary literature, psychology, politics, anthropology, religion, and art. -- Janet Browne, author of Charles Darwin: A Biography and The Quotable DarwinOne of the most compelling and tragic multigenerational scientific legacies ... Bashford tells the story of these intertwined lives with sympathy and candour but also with dexterity. Readers follow the Huxleys as they contemplate nonhuman animals, primates, man, and mind in their intergenerational quest to understand the implications of evolution on what it means, or might mean, to be human." -- Piers J. Hale * Science *Who are we? What is our place in nature? How can we design morality and religion in a world informed by science? Alison Bashford moves across the Huxley generations, tracing how Thomas Henry and his gifted brood struggled to answer these questions, in the process shaping outlooks we hold today. -- Manvir Singh * New Yorker *A scholarly study of T. H. Huxley and his grandson [and a] guide to the history of evolutionary thinking... it's impressive that Bashford can command both these types of writing with equal authority. -- Stefan Collini * London Review of Books *How did a biological theory become such a central part of modern life? ... Bashford traces a cultural phenomenon that has profoundly shaped society and revolutionized our understanding of what it means to be human. -- Stuart Mathieson * Nature *It would be difficult to overstate the debt of gratitude owed to the Huxley dynasty for our knowledge of evolution in all its forms. Bashford narrates the fascinating story of 200 years o modern science and culture through one family history. -- Jules Stewart * Geographical Magazine *Bashford has crafted a masterful biography of Thomas Henry Huxley, patriarch of an evolutionary dynasty, his inheritor and grandson Julian, and the families that sustained them. Interweaving their public contributions to science and private poems, she deftly charts a generational quest to understand and articulate the human condition. -- Erika Lorraine Milam, author of Creatures of CainAlison Bashford's intimate story of the Huxley clan reveals the ambiguities that arise if we apply modern values to past heroes. Here science, society and personalities interact to bring the past alive. -- Peter Bowler, author of Progress Unchained: Ideas of Evolution, Human History and the Future

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Book SynopsisA SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020''Mightily impressive ... a marvellous read'' Sunday TimesFrom the acclaimed author of Japan Story, this is the history of Japan, distilled into the stories of twenty remarkable individuals. The vivid and entertaining portraits in Chris Harding''s enormously enjoyable new book take the reader from the earliest written accounts of Japan right through to the life of the current empress, Masako. We encounter shamans and warlords, poets and revolutionaries, scientists, artists and adventurers - each offering insights of their own into this extraordinary place. For anyone new to Japan, this book is the ideal introduction. For anyone already deeply involved with it, this is a book filled with surprises and pleasures.Trade ReviewSkilled, ambitious, mightily impressive ... Harding turns out to be as adept at describing the country's artistic development as he is at unpicking its brutal politics. Another of his talents is a sharp eye for the telling quote that makes these distant presences tangible ... a marvellous read, full of startling information. -- Waldemar Januszczak * Sunday Times *Splendid ... It's an effective way of telling an unfamiliar story, leavening the course of social change with plenty of enjoyable individual details. -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times *An enjoyable romp through the ages across the Japanese archipelago ... Harding is in his element ... A tour de force, this imaginative book may well be the "ideal introduction" for anyone new to Japan ... Vividly written, there are certainly some interesting surprises to savour along the way. -- Andrew Cobbing * BBC History Magazine *A fresh and fascinating perspective ... By shifting focus without losing the renowned figures or the sweeping trends but rather leavening them with formerly unsung individuals, Harding is able to say something new about the history of Japan and reinvigorate old stories. As such, this book can act as a primer for the archipelago's long and complex story, or as a refreshing take on familiar periods for those already well-versed in the emperors, shoguns and battlefields. -- Iain Maloney * Japan Times *The people included in this look at the lives of 20 of Japan's most notable characters are not, it's fair to say, household names, but historian and broadcaster Christopher Harding brings them to life with warmth and insight. Together, they offer a great primer to the nation's expansive, dynamic story. * History Revealed, Book of the Month *

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Book SynopsisA DAILY TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022''There is unlikely to be a fuller or more informative history of Birmingham than Vinen''s'' Jonathan Coe, Financial Times''Vinen has written a history of Birmingham, but it is also a theory of Birmingham. And also, perhaps, a theory of England. I buy it'' Daily TelegraphFor over a century, Birmingham has been the second largest town in England. In his richly enjoyable new book Richard Vinen captures the drama of a small village that grew to become the quintessential city of the twentieth century: a place of mass production and full employment that began in the 1930s, but which came to a cataclysmic halt in the 1980s. Birmingham has also been a magnet for migration, drawing in people from Wales, Ireland, India, Pakistan and the Caribbean. Indeed, much of British history can be explained, in large measure, with reference to Birmingham.Vinen roots his sweeping story in the experience of individuals. This is a book about figures everyone has heard of, from J. R. R. Tolkien to Duran Duran, and also about those that everyone ought to have heard of. It captures the ways in which hundreds of thousands of people - from the Welsh miners who poured into the car factories in the 1930s to the young women who danced to reggae in the basement of Rebecca''s nightclub in the 1980s - were caught up in the convulsions of social change.Birmingham is not a pretty place, and its history does not always make for comfortable reading. But modern Britain does not make sense without it.Trade ReviewVinen's biography of the city is a spirited attempt at uncovering the mystery of how Birmingham, in his view, has managed for so long to stand at the centre of Britain's modern industrial, economic, political and cultural history without anyone noticing... This absorbing book shows us how we did it. -- Lynsey Hanley * Observer *Richard Vinen's new history of his native city explains everything ... Vinen has written a history of Birmingham, but it is also a theory of Birmingham. And also, perhaps, a theory of England. I buy it. -- Matthew Sweet * Daily Telegraph *[A] sweeping history ... There's a much better story to be told [about Birmingham] - and it's revealed between the covers of this book. -- Pete Paphides * The Times *A superb retort to [the] slings and arrows of derision ... Birmingham's very mutability ... is the key to its survival. -- Stuart Jeffries * Spectator *Absorbing ... There is unlikely to be a fuller or more informative history of Birmingham than Vinen's. -- Jonathan Coe * Financial Times *Birmingham's ordinariness has prevented us from seeing what is extraordinary in its history. Brummies shaped our everyday world ... Vinen's book provides a template for how we might level up the way we write about England's northern and Midland cities. -- Robert Colls * Literary Review *Second City makes the case that Brum is, for all its amorphousness, England's second city, and rightly pays tribute to Joe Chamberlain for transforming it through his progressive policies in the 1870s. -- Simon Heffer * Daily Telegraph Books of 2022 *A key text for understanding our times ... Highly recommended, truly thought provoking. -- Ruth Barbour * Open History *PRAISE FOR NATIONAL SERVICE: Written with compassion and insight, Vinen's book brilliantly recreates the atmosphere of postwar Britain. -- Tony Barber * Financial Times Books of the Year *I can't recall ever having read so unexpectedly fascinating a book... every single page has something of great interest on it. -- Nicholas Lezard * Guardian *

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Book Synopsis*Shortlisted for the Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History*''An enthralling account of a pivotal moment in modern history. . . replete with startling revelations about the deception and mutual suspicion that brought the US and Soviet Union to the brink of Armageddon in October 1962'' Martin Chilton, IndependentThe definitive new history of the Cuban Missile Crisis from the author of Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy, winner of the Baillie Gifford PrizeFor more than four weeks in the autumn of 1962 the world teetered. The consequences of a misplaced step during the Cuban Missile Crisis could not have been more grave. Ash and cinder, famine and fallout; nuclear war between the two most-powerful nations on Earth.In Nuclear Folly, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy tells the riveting story of those weeks, tracing the tortuous decision-making and calculated brinkmanship of John F. Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro, aTrade ReviewAn immense achievement, engrossing and terrifying, surely one of the most important books ever written about the Cuban Missile Crisis and 20th-century international relations * Wall Street Journal *The story is extraordinary and Plokhy is an accomplished narrator . . . it's as authoritative a version of the Soviet side as we are likely to ever get -- Max Hastings * The Sunday Times *An enthralling account of a pivotal moment in modern history. . . replete with startling revelations about the deception and mutual suspicion that brought the US and Soviet Union to the brink of Armageddon in October 1962 -- Martin Chilton * Independent *A definitive new account of the Cuban Missile Crisis . . . masterly * The Economist *With access to recently declassified KGB material, this is the most detailed and dependable account of the crisis. It will be gladly plundered by students and scholars and highlighted until its pages are damp with neon yellow -- Julie McDowell * The Times *A dramatic story, compellingly told * BBC History Revealed *A magisterial work based on a bevy of U.S. and Soviet archival sources, including previously classified KGB documents. The perspective Plokhy provides exposes the perverse incentives that fueled dangerous nuclear power plays during the Cold War and, he suggests, beyond -- Andre Pagliarini * New Republic *A gripping narrative about the most dangerous Cold War crisis . . . Plokhy brings this turning point to spine-chilling life - it reads like a thriller * Tablet *Nearly sixty years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, Serhi Plokhy, the author of multiple groundbreaking books on Soviet history, once again uses newly released KGB archives to offer a new perspective. In gripping, granular detail, he shows us just how close the U.S. and the Soviet Union came to Armageddon -- Anne Applebaum, author of Twilight of DemocracyA fresh examination of the historical milestone. . . . Plokhy keeps the pages turning, and he includes far more Soviet material than earlier scholars. . . . superbly researched and uncomfortably timely * Kirkus *This important, absorbing work shows that the full story of the Cuban Missile Crisis must be told from its global perspective * Library Journal *Plokhy dives deep. . . . History buffs will savor this balanced and richly detailed look at both sides of the crisis * Publishers Weekly *If you think the story of the Cuban missile crisis has been told so often that nothing remains to be learned, think again. Drawing on KGB documents preserved in Ukrainian archives and Soviet military memoirs, as well as American documents and Cuban materials, Serhii Plokhy's almost hour-by-hour account freshly illuminates mistakes by the Kremlin and the White House that triggered the crisis, and snafus at sea and in Cuba that almost sparked a nuclear war -- William Taubman, author of GorbachevAn excellent overview of the Cuban missile crisis from one of America's leading Cold War historians. Serhii Plokhy has mined previously untapped Soviet archives to shed new light on the thirteen days that brought the world closer than ever before to nuclear destruction, and the pivotal roles of John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev. A thrilling read that justifies his sobering conclusion: we may not be so lucky next time -- Michael Dobbs, author of One Minute to Midnight

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Book SynopsisKing of Britain for sixty years and the last king of what would become the United States, George III inspired both hatred and loyalty and is now best known for two reasons: as a villainous tyrant for America''s Founding Fathers, and for his madness, both of which have been portrayed on stage and screen.In this concise and penetrating biography, Jeremy Black turns away from the image-making and back to the archives, and instead locates George''s life within his age: as a king who faced the loss of key colonies, rebellion in Ireland, insurrection in London, constitutional crisis in Britain and an existential threat from Revolutionary France as part of modern Britain''s longest period of war.Black shows how George III rose to these challenges with fortitude and helped settle parliamentary monarchy as an effective governmental system, eventually becoming the most popular monarch for well over a century. He also shows us a talented and curious individual, committed to music, art, architecture and science, who took the duties of monarchy seriously, from reviewing death penalties to trying to control his often wayward children even as his own mental health failed, and became Britain''s longest reigning king.Trade ReviewThis volume forms part of the Penguin Monarchs series, an impressive collection of short biographies written by renowned historians ... Their aim is not simply to summarise, but to offer genuine insights in accessible format. Black's analysis of George III is a welcome addition. [He] ... manages to pepper his trim narrative with lovely frills. The mark of a good short book is its ability to inspire curiosity and further investigation. Black achieves just that. -- Gerard DeGroot * The Times *Black brilliantly demolishes the paranoiac Whig view of George as trying to accrete powers to himself unconstitutionally. The George who emerges is a far more attractive figure than the Whig historians depicted, let alone Thomas Jefferson with his 28 histrionic and inaccurate accusations against George in the Declaration of Independence, and especially Lin-Manuel Miranda's hilarious but profoundly historically incorrect caricature. -- Andrew Roberts * The Critic *

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Book SynopsisTHE TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERGeography comes before history. Islands cannot have the same history as continental plains. The United Kingdom is a European country, but not the same kind of European country as Germany, Poland or Hungary. For most of the 150 centuries during which Britain has been inhabited it has been on the edge, culturally and literally, of mainland Europe.In this succinct book, Tombs shows that the decision to leave the EU is historically explicable - though not made historically inevitable - by Britain''s very different historical experience, especially in the twentieth century, and because of our more extensive and deeper ties outside Europe. He challenges the orthodox view that Brexit was due solely to British or English exceptionalism: in choosing to leave the EU, the British, he argues, were in many ways voting as typical Europeans.Trade Reviewconfident ... surprising and original ... and humble ... Tombs's opening chapter, putting Britain's relationship with Europe into a wider historical context, offers more insights than entire shelves of rival Brexit books. "Geography comes before history," he begins. "Islands cannot have the same history as continental plains. The United Kingdom is a European country, but not the same kind of European country as Germany, Poland or Hungary." ... Like all good historians, Tombs can be entertainingly bitchy [yet] all the time, with elegant wit, he punctures myth after myth -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times *The time has finally come for the whole issue [of Brexit] to pass from the hands of journalists into those of historians. Robert Tombs, emeritus professor of French history at Cambridge, has started the process of objective historical analysis with a profoundly thoughtful explanation of how Brexit happened, and why ... Tombs has a witty turn of phrase and agreeably ironic style that means that he never descends into polemic ... If journalism is the first draft of history, then This Sovereign Isle is its penultimate draft, and the best we will have for many years. -- Andrew Roberts * Daily Telegraph *A short, punchy, eloquent statement from such a distinguished historian -- Fintan O'Toole * The Guardian *Cambridge professor Tombs offers a fine first draft of history in this objective explanation of how and why Brexit happened. Tombs takes a witty, engagingly ironic approach to the false claims of Project Fear. -- Summer reading * The Telegraph *A rare intellectual proponent of Brexit, Robert Tombs infuriates pro-Europeans-even more so because of his undeniable calibre as a historian ... This Sovereign Isle argued that the Leave vote was inevitable as well as rational: the UK never fitted the European project. He understands this as a reaction to the traumas of the continent's story - traumas that Britain's distinctive journey has sometimes ducked ... His theme - national identity in a fracturing world - has contemporary significance far beyond these shores. -- The world’s top 50 thinkers, 2021 * Prospect *admirably independent-minded and well argued ... should indeed be made compulsory reading for all Brexiteers -- Richard Evans * New Statesman *To Remainers interested in reading a civilised & learned defence of Brexit, I highly recommend it -- Tom Holland

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Book SynopsisA FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAROne of our most scintillating public intellectuals explores the political paradoxes of the pandemic and helps us think our way through it''We are able to imagine anything because we are being besieged by something that was considered unimaginable...''Beneath the panic and bluster, beneath the confusing speeches and the conflicting advice, the Coronavirus pandemic acted, changing our world in the most profound ways. The tragic human cost and the economic devastation will be assessed and calculated for decades to come. But the pandemic also changed things in ways that are less easily expressed and understood. It has made bare the frayed contradictions of modern life. It has distorted things that seemed simple and settled. It has affirmed plain, uncomfortable truths. In this brilliant, thought-provoking essay, Ivan Krastev, one of our most interesting thinkers today, explores the pandemic''s iTrade ReviewOne of the great European minds of today -- Timothy SnyderFew people question the conventional wisdom like Ivan Krastev -- George SorosIvan Krastev is one of Europe's leading thinkers -- Madeleine Albright

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Book Synopsis''Illuminating ... Johnson has not only lifted a corner of the curtain which covers China''s reality beyond its glittering eastern cities; he has drawn the whole curtain'' The Times Literary SupplementIn Wild Grass, Pulitzer Prize-winning Ian Johnson describes a China caught between the desire for change percolating up from below and the ossified political structure above. He recounts the stories of three ordinary people who find themselves finding oppression and government corruption, risking imprisonment and even death. A young architecture student, a bereaved daughter, and a peasant legal clerk are the unlikely heroes of these stories, private citizens cast by unexpected circumstances into surprising roles.Trade ReviewIlluminating ... Johnson has not only lifted a corner of the curtain which covers China's reality beyond its glittering eastern cities; he has drawn the whole curtain. * The Times Literary Supplement *A gripping tale. * Washington Post *A captivating and an important study of what is happening on the ground in China today. * The News Tribune *

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Book SynopsisA FINANCIAL TIMES AND NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023Johnson's stories bring this history chillingly alive' Christina Patterson, Sunday Times''An indelible feat of reporting and an urgent read ... It''s a privilege to read books like these'' Te-Ping Chen, author of Land of Big NumbersA documentary filmmaker who uncovered a Mao-era death camp; an independent journalist who gave voice to the millions who suffered through Covid; a magazine publisher who dodged the secret police: these are some of the people who make up Sparks: China''s Underground Historians and their Battle for the Future, a vital account of how some of China''s most important writers, filmmakers, and artists have overcome crackdowns and censorship to challenge the Chinese Communist Party on its most sacred ground - its monopoly on history.In traditional China, dynasties rewrote history to justify their rule by proving that their predecessors were unworthy of holding power. The Chinese Communist Party builds on these ideas to whitewash its misdeeds and justify its rule.But in recent years, critical thinkers from across the land have begun to challenge this state-led disremembering. Using digital technologies to bypass China''s legendary surveillance state, their samizdat journals, guerilla media posts, and underground films document a pattern of disasters: from past famines and purges to the ethnic clashes and virus outbreaks of the present.Based on years of research in Xi Jinping''s China, Sparks challenges stereotypes of a China where the state has quashed all free thought, revealing instead a country engaged in one of humanity''s great struggles of memory against forgetting - a battle that will shape the China that emerges in the mid-21st century.

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Book SynopsisOne of the great historians of our age asks: how far can a single leader alter the course of history?The modern era saw the emergence of individuals who had command over a terrifying array of instruments of control, persuasion and death. Whole societies were re-shaped and wars fought, often with a merciless contempt for the most basic norms. At the summit of these societies were leaders whose personalities had somehow given them the ability to do whatever they wished.Ian Kershaw''s new book is a compelling, lucid and challenging attempt to understand these rulers, whether operating on the widest stage (Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini) or with a more national impact (Tito, Franco). What was it about these leaders and the times they lived in that allowed them such untrammelled and murderous power? And what brought that era to an end? In a contrasting group of profiles, from Churchill to de Gaulle, Adenauer to Gorbachev, and Thatcher to Kohl, Kershaw uses his exTrade ReviewIlluminating ... an insightful series of essays about 12 exceptional leaders who stood at the centre of Europe's 20th century. -- Philip Stephens * Financial Times *Few historians are better qualified to answer these questions than Ian Kershaw ... As always, he proves a splendid miniaturist, expertly sketching personalities and philosophies in a few coolly judged lines ... If Kershaw's book has a contemporary lesson, it is that societies are probably happiest and healthiest when leaders matter least. -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times *Sir Ian Kershaw, the great (in both senses) biographer of Adolf Hitler, makes an important contribution to this debate ... persuasive and nuanced pen-portraits ... well-researched, well-written and thought-provoking. -- Andrew Roberts * Daily Telegraph *Lucid portraits of the leaders who shaped Europe's 20th century ... There is much to be admired in Kershaw's cogent and astute analysis. -- Orlando Figes * The Observer *

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Book SynopsisThe definitive history of the modern climate change era, from an award-winning writer who has been at the centre of the fight for more than thirty yearsIn 1979, President Jimmy Carter was presented with the findings of scientists who had been investigating whether human activities might change the climate in harmful ways. A wait-and-see policy may mean waiting until it is too late, their report said. They were right -- but no one was listening. Four decades later, we are haunted by the consequences of this inattention, and the years of complacency, obfuscation and denialism that followed. Today, the staggering scale and scope of what we have done to the planet is impossible to ignore: the seasons of fire and flood have crossed into plain view. Fire and Flood is a comprehensive, compulsively readable history of climate change from veteran environmental journalist Eugene Linden. Linden retells the story of the modern climate change era decade by decade, Trade ReviewFascinating ... This will be a telling story for a long time to come (assuming we're around to hear it) -- Bill McKibbenUrgent, meticulous ... Linden pulls no punches * Publishers Weekly *Praise for The Winds of Change * - *Beautifully written ... a very thought-provoking volume. Linden manages to weave history, science, and narrative together in a compelling way * Science *Impressive ... Linden takes a penetrating historical view * The New York Times *Fascinating * NPR *Invaluable * Washington Post *Linden expertly and succinctly describes the natural cycles that control climate and the many ways they interact * Nature *Should be required reading for policy makers across the globe -- Doug Macdougall * Chronicle of Higher Education *Fascinating-a tour de force. Linden has accumulated a greater comprehension of paleo-climatic and oceanographic issues than all but a very few scientists. I have nothing but admiration for this book -- George Woodwell, founder of the Woodwell Climate Center and former president of the Ecological Society of AmericaIn-depth, expertly researched, eminently readable ... Linden combines analysis with solutions as to where humanity should and may go, and those solutions should surprise, enrage, and enlighten readers... Fire and Flood should be on every person's bookshelf -- Laure Hiatt * Library Journal *A hard-hitting study of contemporary climate change, exploring how science, business and public perception have become dangerously misaligned ... Linden cuts through the thickets of information to deftly guide the reader towards knowledge that is urgently required in this troubling age * BBC History *Refreshing... Eugene Linden tells a sorry story of good intentions backed by serious research * The Energy Mix *Linden's aim is true and, even if he doesn't name names, his analysis of the financial industry's role in the climate crisis is fresh... Fire and Flood stays on the shelf * Literary Review *

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Book Synopsis- When was Aotearoa discovered? - How was Maori society organised in pre-European times? - What is traditional Maori art? - How does the Treaty of Waitangi affect us today? History and culture, from the great Polynesian migration to present-day sport and politics, are explored in this introduction to the world of the Maori.

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Book SynopsisA chilling, truly authoritative anthology of real-life accounts of witches, from medieval Europe through colonial AmericaFrom a manual for witch hunters written by King James himself in 1597, to court documents from the Salem witch trials of 1692, to newspaper coverage of a woman stoned to death on the streets of Philadelphia while the Continental Congress met, The Penguin Book of Witches is a treasury of historical accounts of accused witches that sheds light on the reality behind the legends. Bringing to life stories like that of Eunice Cole, tried for attacking a teenage girl with a rock and buried with a stake through her heart; Jane Jacobs, a Bostonian so often accused of witchcraft that she took her tormentors to court on charges of slander; and Increase Mather, an exorcism-performing minister famed for his knowledge of witches, this volume provides a unique tour through the darkest history of English and North American witchcraft.Trade ReviewThis comprehensive collection of carefully selected documents and published primary materials, coupled with judicious and informative introductions, will help modern readers understand the seemingly inexplicable and persistent popular phenomenon of belief in witchcraft from the seventeenth century into more modern times -- Mary Beth Norton (author of In the Devil's Snare)Fascinating and insightful. With her usual skill, Katherine Howe navigates the winding path leading to Salem's hysteria and beyond. A must-read for anyone who wants to know not only what happened but also how and why -- Brunonia Barry (author of The Lace Reader)

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Book SynopsisThe life of Frederick Douglass is nothing less than the history of America in the 19th century from slavery to reconstruction. His influence was felt in the political sphere, major social movements, literary culture, and even international affairs. This is a collection of the seminal writings and speeches of a writer, and civil rights leader.Trade Review“indispensable (…) a timelessly rewarding read in its totality”—Maria Popova

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Book SynopsisImagine you could eavesdrop on a dinner party with three of the most fascinating historical figures of all time. In this landmark book, a gifted Harvard historian puts you in the room with Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt as they meet at a climactic turning point in the war to hash out the terms of the peace. The ink wasn''t dry when the recriminations began. The conservatives who hated Roosevelt''s New Deal accused him of selling out. Was he too sick? Did he give too much in exchange for Stalin''s promise to join the war against Japan? Could he have done better in Eastern Europe? Both Left and Right would blame Yalta for beginning the Cold War. Plokhy''s conclusions, based on unprecedented archival research, are surprising. He goes against conventional wisdom-cemented during the Cold War- and argues that an ailing Roosevelt did better than we think. Much has been made of FDR''s handling of the Depression; here we see him as wartime chief. Yalta is authoritatiTrade ReviewThe end of the Cold War has given scholars a chance to step back and take a more dispassionate look at those eight consequential days in February 1945. It is hard to imagine anyone doing so better than S.M. Plokhy in 'Yalta: The Price of Peace' ... colorful and gripping ... * The Wall Street Journal *Harvard historian S.M. Plokhy has produced a gripping narrative of the eight days in February 1945 when the Big Three - Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin - convened the Yalta summit as World War II raged on. * The Boston Globe *

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Book SynopsisVolume 3 in the Penguin History of the United States, edited by Eric Foner.

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Book SynopsisThe fascinating story of how NASA sent humans to explore outer space, told through a treasure trove of historical documents--publishing in celebration of NASA's 60th anniversary and with a foreword by Bill NyeAn extremely useful and thought provoking documentary journey through the maze of space history. There is no wiser or more experienced navigator through the twists and turns and ups and downs than John Logsdon. -James Hansen, New York Times bestselling author of First Man, now a feature film starring Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy Among all the technological accomplishments of the last century, none has captured our imagination more deeply than the movement of humans into outer space. From Sputnik to SpaceX, the story of that journey--including the inside history of our voyages to the moon depicted in First Man--is told as never before in The Penguin Book of Outer Space Exploration. RTrade Review"Somebody needed to do it. And Professor John Logsdon is uniquely qualified for the task — to reveal the cultural, political, and scientific correspondence that birthed and sustains our era of space exploration. The fits and starts of good ideas, the precarious flows of funding streams, the fickle sentiments of the public will — it’s all there, right on down to transcripts of illuminating conversations held in the Oval Office between the President and key players in this epic adventure." -Neil deGrasse Tyson, New York Times bestselling author of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry"I wish I'd had this terrific collection of critically important and richly insightful primary sources during my 31 years teaching university students about the history of space exploration. This new book provides an extremely useful and thought provoking documentary journey through the maze of space history. There is no wiser or more experienced navigator through the twists and turns and ups and downs than John Logsdon." -James Hansen, New York Times bestselling author of First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong"Brimming with fascinating behind-the-scenes details from the birth of the Space Age through the race to the Moon and beyond, this remarkable collection from one of America's preeminent space historians is a treasure.” -Andrew Chaikin, author of A Man on the Moon "As a NASA astronaut, I already knew a lot about the history of human space flight, but this book contained a wealth of new and exciting revelations. I felt like a fly on the wall listening as critical decisions were being made about how to go to the Moon and whether or not to build the Space Shuttle. And what a thrill to read John Glenn’s own summary of his historic Mercury flight! There’s something here for everyone interested in any aspect of human space flight." -Jeff Hoffman, NASA astronaut and MIT professor"The story of space exploration is marked by a series of turning points, a series of policy decisions. These decisions are documented well enough, but the key documents would be very hard to find, if you didn't where to look. Dr. Logsdon does. He's the dean of space history. He is the world's foremost authority on which of the hundreds of thousands of documents hold the keys to knowing what and why significant things happened on Earth that influenced our presence in space." -Bill Nye, from the foreword“[John Logsdon] clearly knows and is inspired by his material, and his enthusiasm comes through here…. An absorbing read for space exploration enthusiasts, from high schoolers to adults.”—Library Journal “A fascinating look at an extraordinary time….This wonderful little book should be in everyman’s library.”—The Albany Times-Union

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Book SynopsisThe incredible tale of how ambitious oil rivals, Marcus Samuel, Jr. and Henri Deterding, joined forces to topple the Standard Oil empire.

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Book SynopsisThe preeminent meditation on plagues and pandemics from the Islamic world, now in English for the first timeA Penguin ClassicSix hundred years ago, the author of this landmark work of history and religious thought—an esteemed judge, poet, and scholar in Cairo—survived the bubonic plague, which took the lives of three of his children, not to mention tens of millions of others throughout the medieval world. Holding up an eerie mirror to our own time, he reflects on the origins of plagues—from those of the Prophet Muhammad’s era to the Black Death of his own—and what it means that such catastrophes could have been willed by God, while also chronicling the fear, isolation, scapegoating, economic tumult, political failures, and crises of faith that he lived through. But in considering the meaning of suffering and mass death, he also offers a message of radical hope. Weaving together accounts of evil jinn, religious stories, medical manualTrade Review“This is the first English-language edition of his work, deservedly bringing it to a wide new audience. . . . Having lost three of his daughters to the Black Death, [Ibn Hajar] reflects with empathy and grief on examples of plagues from the time of the Prophet Muhammad to his own. . . . At a time when many ruins of the coronavirus pandemic are yet to be rebuilt, Merits of the Plague helps us to place our experience of the disease in a longer arc of history.” —The Times Literary Supplement“Remarkable . . . A landmark work of history and religious thought . . . Surprisingly modern and has a lot to say to us in the era of coronavirus.” —History Unplugged Podcast“A valuable addition to our understanding of the pandemic and how people reacted to it . . . This book offers a much-needed perspective from the Islamic world.” —Medievalists.net“A unique, non-Western medieval perspective on the Black Death and pandemics in general.” —Jara News

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Book Synopsis''My life''s done a somersault,'' wrote acclaimed modernist writer Mário de Andrade. After years of dreaming about Amazonia, he finally embarked on a three-month odyssey up the great river and into the wild heart of his native Brazil with a group of avant-garde luminaries. All abandoned ship but a socialite, her two nieces, and, of course, the author himself. And so begins the humorous account of Andrade''s steamboat adventure into one of the most dangerous and breathtakingly beautiful corners of the world.Rife with shrewd observations and sparkling wit, his sarcastic, down-to-earth diary entries not only offer comedic and awe-inspiring details of life and the landscape but also trace his internal metamorphosis: his travels challenge what he thought he knew about the Amazon, and drastically alter his understanding of his motherland.Trade ReviewExtraordinary encounters with indigenous communities, some partially real and others completely falsified, yet always well and truly beyond belief . . . in the process of mythmaking . . . the country of Andrade’s imagination became more vivid, more alive -- David McAllister * Prospect *The Apprentice Tourist shows Andrade’s fascination with Amazonian cultures — and his utter boredom with the government officials and elites who welcomed the group of travelers along the way . . . it offers an important corrective in bringing canonical Brazilian works into English -- Lucas Iberico Lozada * The New York Times *

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Book SynopsisKarpoori Thakur, often called Jannayak, was a legendary leader from Bihar who had a significant impact on India's politics. In early 2024, he was posthumously honoured with the Bharat Ratna in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to society. Commemorating his birth centenary, this gripping biography brings to light the life, legacy and enduring relevance of Thakur. It focuses on Karpoori Thakur's politics, which introduced quota within quota' and opens a window to his role in bifurcating reservation among the backward classes and women in 1978.

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