History Books
Cambridge University Press The Emergence of Islam in Late Antiquity
Book SynopsisA comprehensive and innovative reconstruction of the emergence of early Muslim religion and polity in their historical, religious and ethnological contexts. Intended principally for scholars of late antiquity, Islamic studies and the history of religions, the book opens up many novel directions for future research.Trade Review'Aziz Al-Azmeh starts his excellent new book by modestly describing it as an extended essay in historical interpretation' … but in reality this is a truly massive analysis of the origins of early Islam that will challenge many contemporary assumptions … This intriguing and engaging book is a welcome addition to academia. Intended primarily for postgraduate scholars of Islam, religion and Late Antiquity, this monograph suggests many exciting new directions for future studies and empirical research.' Abdullah Drury, Islam and Christian–Muslim RelationsTable of Contents1. Late antiquity and Islam: historiography and history; 2. Gods, divine economies, and emperors; 3. Arabia and Arab ethnogenesis in late antiquity; 4. Preface to Allah; 5. Allah; 6. Paleo-Islam, 1: charismatic polity; 7. Paleo-Islam, 2: the Paleo-Muslim canon; 8. Retrospective and prospective: Islam in late antiquity and beyond.
£34.99
Cambridge University Press The Cambridge Companion to Catullus
Book SynopsisCatullus is one of the most popular poets to survive from classical antiquity. Above all others he seems to speak to modern readers with a modern voice. The distinguished contributors to this Companion discuss the principal subjects which drew Catullus'' affection and disgust, above all his famous affair with the woman he calls ''Lesbia'', and situate him in the social, historical and intellectual context of first-century BC Rome. One of the so-called ''new poets'', Catullus had a profound effect on subsequent Latin poetry, and this is explored especially for the Augustan age and the late first century AD. A significant part of the volume is concerned with Catullus'' survival into the modern world. There are discussions both of the manuscript tradition and of the interpretative scholarship which has been devoted to his poetry, as well as his reception by renaissance and later poets. Students in particular will appreciate this book.Trade Review'… advanced students, teachers, and researchers looking to orient themselves in the scholarship on Catullus will benefit … Recommended.' M. L. Goldman, Choice MagazineTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Situating Catullus Cynthia Damon; 2. Literary liaisons Tony Woodman; 3. Catullan intertextuality Richard F. Thomas; 4. Gender and sexuality K. Sara Myers; 5. Catullan themes Bruce Gibson; 6. Language and style Anna Chahoud; 7. Catullus and metre David Butterfield; 8. Catulli carmina Ian du Quesnay; 9. Catullus and Augustan poetry Monica R. Gale; 10. Rewriting Catullus in the flavian age Carole Newlands; 11. The manuscripts and transmission of the text S.P. Oakley; 12. Editions and commentaries Dániel Kiss; 13. Catullus in the renaissance Alex Wong; 14. Catullus and poetry in english since 1750 Stephen Harrison; Abbreviations and bibliography; Index locorum; General index.
£25.99
Cambridge University Press An Urban History of China
Book SynopsisIn this accessible new study, Toby Lincoln offers the first history of Chinese cities from their origins to the present. Despite being an agricultural society for thousands of years, China had an imperial urban civilization. Over the last century, this urban civilization has been transformed into the world''s largest modern urban society. Throughout their long history, Chinese cities have been shaped by interactions with those around the world, and the story of urban China is a crucial part of the history of how the world has become an urban society. Exploring the global connections of Chinese cities, the urban system, urban governance, and daily life alongside introductions to major historical debates and extracts from primary sources, this is essential reading for all those interested in China and in urban history.Trade Review'A well-written and much-needed overview of China's 2000-year urban history connecting local developments and international influences. Exploring the complex intersection of urban system, form and governance, urban culture and daily life, Toby Lincoln's comprehensive study of Chinese cities is an important addition to the growing field of global urban history.' Carola Hein, Delft University of Technology'Lincoln captures China's urban history in rich detail, including changes in conceptions of cities, urban form, and urban life over the centuries. Enlivened with excerpts from fiction and memoirs, this book is both a sweeping historical overview and a great introduction to scholarship on Chinese cities past and present.' Kristin Stapleton, University at Buffalo, SUNY'A good teaching text both reviews and engages with the literature … the author whets the reader's appetite for more, which is exactly what an introductory academic text should do.' Michael Hebbert, The China Quarterly'It is a fascinating read, entertaining a new perspective on the course of Chinese history … Highly recommended.' Q. E. Wang, Choice Connect'Lincoln's textbook is an extremely useful tool … I admire how Lincoln foregrounds the historical legacies of administrative central-ization, economic interconnection, and cultural production in China today while still conveying the many transformations of Chinese urban forms.' Chuck Wooldridge, Journal of Chinese HistoryTable of Contents1. Introduction; 2. The emergence of China's imperial urban civilization (antiquity to 220 CE); 3. Expansion of China's imperial urban civilization to the south (220–755); 4. The Tang-Song transition and its effects on China's imperial urban civilization (907–1402); 5. The flowering of Chinese imperial urban civilization (1402–1799); 6. The seeds of urban modernity (1800–1895); 7. Urban modernity in Republican China (1895–1949); 8. The Maoist period (1949–1976); 9. The Reform Era and the present; 10. Conclusion.
£23.99
Macmillan Higher Education A History of Western Society Volume 1
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£66.49
WW Norton & Co American Journey
Book SynopsisThe epic road tripsand surprising friendshipof John Burroughs, nineteenth-century naturalist, and Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, inventors of the modern ageTrade Review"[An] intriguing history full of lively details." -- Nature
£24.69
WW Norton & Co Love and Resistance
Book SynopsisThese indelible images are among the hundreds housed in the New York Public Library's archive of photographs of LGBT history from photojournalists Kay Tobin Lahusen and Diana Davies.Trade Review"... a collection of over 100 powerful images capturing the LGBTQ civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and the protests that surrounded the pivotal Stonewall riots." -- All About History"Love and Resistance contains no photographs from Stonewall – not because Stonewall doesn’t matter but because the community was bound to erupt at some point, and the conditions undergirding that inevitability are of more importance to the edition than the eruption itself. It is also the only book here to focus primarily on queer women, whose contributions to gay liberation are often minimized when the focus is on Stonewall (the bar was primarily for white, cisgender men). Instead, we find personal portraits leading up to, surrounding, and following on from the events of that summer..." -- Times Literary Supplement
£18.99
WW Norton & Co Tower of Skulls
Book SynopsisThe first book in a new three-volume history of the Asia-Pacific War, by the acclaimed author of Downfall and Guadalcanal.Trade Review"It was [Richard Frank's] account of the chaos of war that most gripped me. Another of this book's many strengths is the author's welcome desire to tell the Chinese side of the story… Excellent though he is at most things, Frank is arguably at his best in his portrayal of both the leading and minor characters in this story." -- Malcolm Murfett - Literary Review
£28.79
WW Norton & Co The Secret of Life
Book SynopsisA definitive history of the race to unravel DNA's structure, by one of our most prominent medical historians.Trade Review"Howard Markel’s brilliant book examining the discovery of DNA is a ‘must read’ for biologists and historians. But this is also a book for every reader; it brings to life the discovery of life itself. From Watson, Crick, and Franklin, to the dozens of characters that Markel includes, The Secret of Life covers vast and important ground... An indispensable work." -- Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Gene"The discovery of DNA is one of history’s light switch moments, when the world of science—indeed, humanity—changed forever. Though much has been written on the subject, nothing remotely compares to Howard Markel’s magisterial account. Elegantly written, packed with fresh insights gleaned from a wealth of original sources, The Secret of Life takes us into the minds and laboratories of the leading players, highlighting their brilliance, their ambitions, and their sometimes questionable ethical behavior. This book is the merging of a seminal subject and superb author—one of the leading medical historians of our era. The result is truly remarkable." -- David Oshinsky, Professor of History and Medicine, NYU, and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Polio: An American Story"Howard Markel’s wonderfully-written book, The Secret of Life, explores the story of genetics up to the revolutionary mid-20th century decoding of the structure of DNA. And it does so in such brilliant detail that the result is—even for those who might think they know this story—a tale that proves fresh, provocative, startlingly insightful, and addictively fun to read." -- Deborah Blum, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Poison Squad: One Chemist’s Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century"The 1953 discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure might be one of science’s most fascinating and oft-told stories. Yet much about it is still contentious… Howard Markel’s fine book focuses on the role of Rosalind Franklin, whose X-ray crystallography image of DNA — crucial to Francis Crick and James Watson’s breakthrough — was used without her permission." -- Andrew Robinson - Nature"A cinematic account of toxic masculinity among 1950s DNA researchers… [Rosalind Franklin] probably would have hated being the heroine of a movie, but we’re fortunate to have books such as this to put her back in the picture." -- Katy Guest - The Guardian
£22.79
WW Norton & Co Empires Son Empires Orphan
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£20.90
WW Norton & Co The Presidents and the People
Book SynopsisAmerican presidents have often pushed the boundaries established for them by the Constitution; this is the inspirational history of the people who pushed back
£23.39
WW Norton & Co Nobodys Normal
Book SynopsisA compassionate and captivating examination of evolving attitudes toward mental illness throughout history and the fight to end the stigmaTrade Review"Nobody’s Normal by Roy Richard Grinker is a compassionate, well-researched chronicle of the historical stigmatisation of mental illness. Since ‘normal’ is a social construct, why can’t we change it? " -- Ruth Ozeki - The Guardian, Best Books of 2021
£15.19
WW Norton & Co Smalltime
Book SynopsisFamily secrets emerge as a best-selling author dives into the history of the mob in small-town AmericaTrade Review"[A] master of historical narrative…[O]nce Shorto’s on the highway, steering us along with his usual humor and eye for quirky detail, settling an hour from his hometown for easy access, we are with him. All the way." -- The New York Times Book Review"Shorto has produced something that feels altogether fresh, a street-level portrait of how his late grandfather helped build what amounted to a Mafia small business…Shorto is a terrific storyteller…few of his words are wasted, a delight these days." -- The Wall Street Journal"With Smalltime, Shorto traces his decision to learn the truth about his family’s past, discover its long-buried secrets, and explore unforgotten slights and how decisions made decades and decades ago continue to leave their mark." -- Washington Post
£13.29
WW Norton & Co Think Like a Feminist
Book SynopsisAn audacious and accessible guide to feminist philosophy—its origins, its key ideas and its latest directionsTrade Review"Think Like a Feminist has opened my eyes in ways I had not known they were closed. It is a timely and deeply important book, and I cannot recommend it highly enough, especially for those who yearn for justice for all human beings, no matter their sex, gender, or race." -- Andre Dubus III
£9.99
WW Norton & Co The Truce
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£20.69
WW Norton & Co American Republics
Book SynopsisFrom a Pulitzer Prize–winning historian, the powerful story of a precarious United States as it expands across a contested continentTrade Review"Stimulating… Many histories of this important interregnum period have been written, but none emphasizes the fragility of the American experiment as strongly as Taylor’s book does. American Republics succeeds admirably." -- David S. Reynolds - The New York Times Book Review"[Alan Taylor’s] book is written in clear, readable prose designed for readers with little or no prior knowledge of the period, and the work has touches of wokeness, which helps to fit it nicely into this extraordinary moment in our history." -- Gordon S. Wood - The Wall Street Journal"[A] masterful new volume..." -- M.J. Andersen - Boston Globe
£15.19
WW Norton & Co Until Justice Be Done
Book SynopsisTrade Review"A remarkable and shattering book….Breathtakingly fresh." -- Harold Holzer - Wall Street Journal"Revelatory….excellent….If this is a clear-eyed book, it’s still a heartening one." -- Jennifer Szalai - New York Times"Momentous…a brilliant meditation on progress and its limits." -- John Fabian Witt - Washington Post"At a time when definitions of citizenship and civil rights are again under assault, Masur's careful accounting of the ways Americans came to understand such terms provides an informed perspective to appreciate that such concepts never were, and thus never are, self-evident. They require due diligence and vigilance to secure and sustain at all levels of government. An essential book." -- Library Journal (starred review)"Kate Masur’s masterpiece is an extraordinary contribution to our understanding of the central role of African Americans in conceiving American democracy." -- Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, author of Race for Profit"In this brilliant book, Kate Masur widens and deepens our understanding of the long struggle against racism throughout the United States." -- Alan Taylor, author of Thomas Jefferson’s Education"Kate Masur’s Until Justice Be Done is a masterpiece of scope, insight, and graceful writing about the central question in the making, unmaking, and remaking of an American democracy. This is a book we will read and conjure with for a long time." -- David W. Blight, author of Frederick Douglass"A tour de force: Until Justice Be Done is the eloquent and essential story of what the first civil rights movement achieved, and what it left for later generations to do." -- W. Caleb McDaniel, author of Sweet Taste of Liberty"A magnificent contribution to the history of antiracism in America." -- Randall Kennedy, author of For Discrimination"[A] tour de force of scholarship and lucid analysis." -- James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom"Until Justice Be Done tells the origin story of one of the most important and often-misunderstood ideas in American law and politics: racial equality before the law. It is a brilliant book." -- Dylan C. Penningroth, author of The Claims of Kinfolk"In our current moment, as we imagine paths forward for American democracy, Kate Masur’s revelatory book is essential reading." -- Daniel J. Sharfstein, author of Thunder in the Mountains"Kate Masur’s sobering and inspiring history of the ‘first civil rights movement’ could not be more timely." -- Steven Hahn, author of A Nation Under Our Feet"[I]lluminating history…This engrossing study goes beyond sectionalist accounts of the South's peculiar institution to show how racism and civil rights activism have shaped every corner of America." -- Publishers Weekly"A fine history of the first phase of the nation’s most enduring moral reform effort." -- Kirkus Reviews
£15.19
WW Norton & Co American Civil Wars
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£30.59
WW Norton & Co Clodia of Rome
Book SynopsisA thrilling new history of the late Roman Republic, told through one woman's quest for justice.
£20.69
WW Norton & Co The Chinese Question
Book SynopsisHow Chinese migration to the world's goldfields upended global power and economics and forged modern conceptions of raceTrade Review"Ngai brilliantly reconstructs how race became woven into the fabric of international capitalism and wired into the politics of nations. A stunning, vivid, and indispensable history." -- Gary Gerstle, University of Cambridge"Meticulously researched... A deep historical study, and a timely re-examination of the persistent Chinese Question in America and elsewhere." -- The New York Times Book Review"[An] important and eminently readable book... The Chinese, who have excelled at so many things since ancient times, seem to be reminding us barbarians on the outside of the nature of their historic superiority. In recent centuries this related simply to the extraction of gold. Now, as Ngai presciently notes in a book that valuably places today’s argument in context, it has implications for the entire world." -- Simon Winchester - The Spectator"Mae Ngai’s The Chinese Question takes the well-known story of Chinese gold miners in 19th-century California and expands it to incorporate global movements of people and capital from California to Cape Town. Ngai’s inclusion of the voices of Chinese gold miners is groundbreaking." -- History Today
£16.14
WW Norton & Co The Shattering
Book SynopsisFrom the National Book Award winner, a masterful history of the decade whose conflicts shattered America's post-war order and divide us stillTrade Review"Gripping…Kevin Boyle gives us a fresh perspective on the central debates of the decade that will help readers understand the era in an entirely new light." -- Elizabeth Hinton, author of America on Fire"[A] rich, layered account of the 1960s." -- Jennifer Szalai - New York Times"[A] luminous guide to a tumultuous decade…Boyle elegantly narrates the ‘60s through his three lenses—race, militarism, and sexuality—and grounds his narrative with individuals caught in the whirlwind." -- James A Morone - New York Times Book Review"The Shattering is an epic history of the 1960s for a new generation. This passionately narrated, luminously written account of the decade that forever transformed America brilliantly recounts how that era’s struggle for social justice and radical d" -- Peniel E. Joseph, author of The Sword and the Shield
£16.14
WW Norton & Co The Intermediaries
Book SynopsisThe fascinating history of a daring team of sexologists who built the first trans clinic in the shadow of the Third Reich
£22.79
WW Norton & Co Origin Story
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£23.75
W. W. Norton & Company The Eurasian Century
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£21.84
W. W. Norton & Company The Secret of Life Rosalind Franklin James
Book SynopsisA definitive history of the race to unravel DNA’s structure by one of our most prominent medical historiansTrade Review"A cinematic account of toxic masculinity among 1950s DNA researchers… [Rosalind Franklin] probably would have hated being the heroine of a movie, but we’re fortunate to have books such as this to put her back in the picture." -- Katy Guest - The Guardian"Howard Markel’s wonderfully-written book, The Secret of Life, explores the story of genetics up to the revolutionary mid-20th century decoding of the structure of DNA. And it does so in such brilliant detail that the result is—even for those who might think they know this story—a tale that proves fresh, provocative, startlingly insightful, and addictively fun to read." -- Deborah Blum, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Poison Squad: One Chemist’s Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century"The discovery of DNA is one of history’s light switch moments, when the world of science—indeed, humanity—changed forever. Though much has been written on the subject, nothing remotely compares to Howard Markel’s magisterial account. Elegantly written, packed with fresh insights gleaned from a wealth of original sources, The Secret of Life takes us into the minds and laboratories of the leading players, highlighting their brilliance, their ambitions, and their sometimes questionable ethical behavior. This book is the merging of a seminal subject and superb author—one of the leading medical historians of our era. The result is truly remarkable." -- David Oshinsky, Professor of History and Medicine, NYU, and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Polio: An American Story"Howard Markel’s brilliant book examining the discovery of DNA is a ‘must read’ for biologists and historians. But this is also a book for every reader; it brings to life the discovery of life itself. From Watson, Crick, and Franklin, to the dozens of char" -- Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Gene
£15.19
WW Norton & Co One Friday in April
Book SynopsisOne of TIME's 100 Must-Read Books of 2021 One of BuzzFeed's Best Books of 2021 One of Vulture's Best Books of 2021 Named one of the Most Anticipated of Books of 2021 by the Los Angeles Times, Literary HubTrade Review"[An] engrossing, necessary book—part memoir, part philosophical treatise... [An] intimate testimony from someone who has lived through an illness long shrouded in silence, shame and sin... Antrim’s inventive, circular prose style reflects his sense of warped time: Hours bend, fragment, compress, extend... One hopes this brief, courageous book will bring us closer to the 'paradigm shift' Antrim seeks." -- Heather Clark - New York Times Book Review"[With] an unflinching portrait of his psychosis, hospitalization and treatment...Antrim aims not only to destigmatize mental illness but also to strip away the hushed-whispers mystery surrounding suicide." -- Sandra Sobeiraj Westfall - People Magazine"In One Friday in April, Donald Antrim describes the sickness that is suicide and the anguish of self-annihilation in crisp, vivid prose that is free of self-pity or self-aggrandizement. The book chronicles his experience at the brink, but it also describes the larger face of how little we really know of suicide and its multiplicity of causes, and how little we understand of our agency over our own lives or deaths. It is a compelling, heart-breaking, and redemptive read and it shimmers in its narratives of both loss and hope." -- Andrew Solomon, author of Far From the Tree"One Friday in April evokes, as vividly as any book since William Styron's Darkness Visible, the ongoing present tenseness—or present tension—of suicide... [Antrim's intentions] are to explore the experience of his illness rather than its arc" -- David L Ulin - Los Angeles Times
£12.34
WW Norton & Co Fly Girl
Book SynopsisAn entertaining and fascinating memoir of gifted storyteller (People) Ann Hood's adventurous years as a TWA flight attendantTrade Review"In this warm and engaging memoir, Ann Hood captures the heady thrills as well as the gruelling realities of life as a flight attendant during the Golden Age of air travel. Over eight years, Hood walked a million miles, explored far-flung cities, and learned invaluable lessons that shaped her as a writer and a person. A brisk history lesson, an affectionate homage, and a thoughtful critique of the airline industry, Fly Girl soars." -- Christina Baker Kline, New York Times best-selling author of The Exiles and Orphan Train"Fly Girl soars: Ann Hood’s memoir of her experiences as a flight attendant is a love letter to the years when flying was a dream—and the 747s ruled the skies. I was catapulted back in time and savored every second and every story from 35,000 feet in the air." -- Chris Bohjalian, #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Flight Attendant and The Lioness"At first blush, Fly Girl is a charming, layered memoir about Ann Hood’s life as a flight attendant who knew the industry in its glory days—and its-not-so-glorious days post-deregulation. But it’s also something much more, nothing less than a manifesto calling us to embrace joy and adventure, however we define them. I have always loved Ann’s stories and now I know why she has so many: She has lived, in the best, fullest sense of that word. She can't make the sun stand still, but, boy does she make it run." -- Laura Lippman, New York Times best-selling author of Dream Girl and Lady in the Lake
£13.29
WW Norton & Co Three Dangerous Men
Book SynopsisHow three key figures in Moscow, Beijing and Tehran built ruthless irregular warfare campaigns that are eroding American powerTrade Review"Three Dangerous Men is a brilliantly conceived exposé of modern conflict through the lives of three warrior-innovators. Seth Jones dug deep into Russian, Iranian, and Chinese sources, and breaks new ground by portraying the evolution of irregular warfare, finally, in its proper cultural and historical context. An invaluable book." -- Thomas Rid, Johns Hopkins University, author of Active Measures"This impeccably researched book explains how Russia, China, and Iran employ new technologies and irregular warfare tactics to avoid US strengths and exploit weaknesses. Three Dangerous Men is important because US leaders tend to mirror adversaries and define future war as they might prefer it to be. Seth Jones provides recommendations that will appeal to policy makers. General readers will appreciate the author’s use of anecdotes that are as entertaining as they are illuminating." -- H. R. McMaster, author of Dereliction of Duty and Battlegrounds"Three Dangerous Men provides an unparalleled look at how Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran are competing with the United States—through their eyes. It is a cogently argued, well-researched, and elegantly written book on one of the US’s most important challenges ahead." -- General Michael Hayden, US Air Force (Ret.) and former director of the Central Intelligence Agency"Seth Jones is one of the world’s sharpest defense theorists. This is an invaluable guide to the coming era of geopolitical competition, which will largely take place off the traditional battlefield, and a timely warning that the United States is not doing" -- Hal Brands, Johns Hopkins University and American Enterprise Institute
£15.19
WW Norton & Co Supertall
Book SynopsisThe global boom in skyscraperswhy it's happening now, how they're made and what they do to cities and peopleTrade Review"The sheer volume of calculation required to build and keep [supertalls] aloft and functioning is astounding. Al...explains these esoteric technical challenges in lucid fashion...[T]he story of what’s come about in the age of the supertall is gripping." -- Anthony Paletta - The Wall Street Journal"A thoughtful inquiry into the new generations of skyscrapers…There is a lot of rich history here, well and concisely told (and illustrated with superb line drawings, a refreshing change)." -- Paul Goldberger - The New York Times Book Review"Stefan Al draws on the exhilarating history of skyscrapers and his own work as an architect for some of the iconic Supertall structures that are transforming cities around the globe. He then warns us about the environmental and socioeconomic repercussions of this recent phenomenon. The result is a fascinating and necessary book." -- Gwendolyn Wright, author of USA: Modern Architectures in History and Professor Emerita, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University"In Supertall, Stefan Al turns the jumbled skylines of our biggest cities into a powerful story of human possibility. Looking to both past and future, this astonishing synthesis reveals how skyscrapers have made us who we are and can help us become" -- Andrew Blum, best-selling author of Tubes and The Weather Machine
£15.19
WW Norton & Co Kent State
Book SynopsisA definitive history of the fatal clash between Vietnam War protestors and the National Guard, illuminating its causes and lasting consequences
£27.54
WW Norton & Co Explorers
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£16.14
WW Norton & Co Black Snow
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£16.14
WW Norton & Co Wild Girls
Book SynopsisAn award-winning historian shows how girls who found self-understanding in the natural world became women who changed America
£9.99
WW Norton & Co Against Technoableism
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£9.99
WW Norton & Co American Visions
Book SynopsisA revealing history of the formative period when voices of dissent and innovation defied power and created visions of America still resonant today
£16.14
WW Norton & Co The Saddest Words
Book SynopsisMichael Gorra, one of America's most preeminent literary critics, asks how we read William Faulkner in the twenty-first century.Trade Review"Michael Gorra is one of the finest critical minds at work in literature today, and this masterly reassessment of William Faulkner could not be more timely. Faulkner is a central figure in American fiction and, indeed, in American history, a voice as resonant in today's troubled world as it was in his own time. Gorra asks hard questions about the novelist and the man, and is unflinching in answering them. This is a momentous and thrilling book." -- John Banville"Gorra’s complex and thought-provoking meditation on Faulkner is rich in insight, making the case for the novelist’s literary achievement and his historical value — as an unparalleled chronicler of slavery’s aftermath, and its damage to America’s psyche." -- 100 Notable Books of 2020 - The New York Times Book Review"Faulkner’s enduring, ubiquitous quote that ‘the past is never dead’ might be a fitting epitaph for this new book. In this timely re-examination, Gorra considers how Faulkner should be read in the 21st century, with a focus on the depiction of Black people and racism in his fiction." -- Joumana Khatib - The New York Times"Eloquent analysis... Graceful... A nimble hybrid that blends literary analyses with history, biography, and personal narrative... [Gorra] movingly narrates the debacles at Bull Run and Gettysburg and effortlessly slides from astute analyses of Faulkner’s best stories, like ‘Mountain Victory,’ to such novels as The Sound and the Fury, The Unvanquished (1938), and Go Down, Moses (1942)." -- Brenda Wineapple - The New York Review of Books"Powerful... Mr. Gorra demonstrates convincingly that this unshakable past for Faulkner came increasingly to involve race.... For Mr. Gorra, Faulkner’s fiction should be read these days for 'the drama and struggle and paradox and power of his attempt to work through our history, to wrestle or rescue it into meaning.' Reading Faulkner today we discover just how much imagination and courage can be required to face the past." -- Randall Fuller - The Wall Street Journal"Gorra’s well-conceived, exhaustively researched book probes history’s refusals... Rich in insight... Timely and essential as we confront, once again, the question of who is a citizen and who among us should enjoy its privileges." -- Ayana Mathis - The New York Times Book Review"Michael Gorra, an English professor at Smith, believes Faulkner to be the most important novelist of the 20th century. In his rich, complex, and eloquent new book, The Saddest Words: William Faulkner’s Civil War, he makes the case for how and why to read Faulkner in the 21st by revisiting his fiction through the lens of the Civil War, 'the central quarrel of our nation’s history.' In setting out to explore what Faulkner can tell us about the Civil War and what the war can tell us about Faulkner, Gorra engages as both historian and literary critic. But he also writes, he confesses, as an 'act of citizenship.'" -- Drew Gilpin Faust - The Atlantic
£14.24
WW Norton & Co No Democracy Lasts Forever
Book SynopsisNo Democracy Lasts Forever argues that the Constitution has become a threat to American democracy and must be dramatically changed or replaced if secession is to be avoided
£22.79
WW Norton & Co Mr. Churchill in the White House
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£23.75
WW Norton & Co Germany 1923
Book SynopsisFrom a New York Times best-selling historian comes a gripping account of the crisis that threatened to unravel the Weimar Republic
£23.75
WW Norton & Co Indigenous Continent
Book SynopsisTrade Review"When [John] Donne exclaimed ‘O my America! My new-found-land’ to his latest girlfriend, he was oblivious to the long history of that territory so painstakingly mapped by Pekka Hämäläinen in Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America." -- Paul Muldoon - The Times Literary Supplement"[M]agisterial . . . the pace and the scope of the book have a force of their own: Hämäläinen makes it clear that America’s past is crazily, energetically, tumultuously crowded with incident; that Indigenous power has affected everything about America . . . I can only wish that, when I was that lonely college junior and was finishing Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, I’d had Hämäläinen’s book at hand. It would have helped me see that there was indeed a larger story: that my civilization hadn’t been destroyed; that my tribe’s contribution to the past wasn’t merely to fade away in the face of history; that Native peoples—for better or for worse—made this country what it was, and have a role to play in what it now struggles to be." -- David Treuer - The New Yorker"T]he single best book I have ever read on Native American history, as well as one of the most innovative narratives about the continent." -- Thomas E. Ricks - The New York Times Book Review"[A] towering achievement. By gathering the experiences of multiple Native peoples—across an astounding expanse of time and space—Indigenous Continent explodes the view that American history unfolded inexorably according to European and American des" -- Andrew Graybill - The American Scholar"The author, an Oxford historian, recasts the history of North America from a Native American perspective, making clear that Native tribes controlled the continent for millenniums (‘On an Indigenous time scale, the United States is a mere speck’). One of t" -- The New York Times Book Review
£17.09
WW Norton & Co The Wandering Mind
Book SynopsisA revelatory account of how Christian monks identified distraction as a fundamental challenge—and how their efforts to defeat it can inform ours, more than a millennium laterTrade Review"A life of prayer and seclusion has never meant a life without distraction. As Jamie Kreiner puts it in her new book, [The Wandering Mind], the monks of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages (around A.D. 300 to 900) struggled mightily with attention...Charming...[Kreiner uses] the cultural obsession with distractibility to train our focus elsewhere, guiding us from the starting point of our own preoccupations to a greater understanding of how monks lived." -- Jennifer Szalai - The New York Times"A lucid and vivid examination of how early Christian monks created habits of contemplation to 'connect their minds to God,' opening 'panoramic vistas of the universe that transcended both space and time.' Ms. Kreiner, a professor of medieval history at th" -- Dominic Green - The Wall Street Journal"compelling, beautifully written and often amusing" -- Anna Katharina Schaffner - The Times Literary Supplement
£14.24
Liveright Cold Peace
Book SynopsisAn urgent examination of the world barrelling toward a new Cold War, from a scholar on the diplomatic front lines
£16.14
WW Norton & Co Germany in the World
Book Synopsis
£18.99
Liveright Muse of Fire World War I as Seen through the
Book Synopsis
£14.24
Liveright The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republi
Book Synopsis
£14.24
Liveright Publishing Corporation Mr. Churchill in the White House
Book Synopsis
£18.27
WW Norton & Co Explorers
Book SynopsisThe impulse to seek out new worlds is universal to humanity.
£10.41
WW Norton & Co Raiders Rulers and Traders
Book SynopsisA captivating history of civilization that reveals the central role of the horse in culture, commerce, and conquest.
£14.24
WW Norton & Co A Complicated Passion
Book SynopsisThe first major biography of the French filmmaker hailed by Martin Scorsese as one of the Gods of cinema.
£13.29
