History Books

Book SynopsisTHE SUNDAY TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER 'Compulsive . . . A wonderful display of how modern archaeology can bring hidden histories to life' Daily Telegraph  'Gripping . . . I found it hard to put down' Evening Standard ‘Gripping… Fascinating… While bodily remains tell excellent tales, they require an equally vivid historical context if they are to come fully alive’ Guardian 'Another really good book from archaeologist Alice Roberts . . . Helps you understand the facts on a technical level, but also makes you feel them in your bones' New Scientist The new book by Sunday Times bestselling author of Ancestors and Buried - the final instalment in Professor Alice Roberts' acclaimed trilogy.We can un

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Book SynopsisIn this compelling, powerful book, highly respected writer and commentator Jack Holland sets out to answer a daunting question: how do you explain the oppression and brutalization of half the world''s population by the other half, throughout history? The result takes the reader on an eye-opening journey through centuries, continents and civilizations as it looks at both historical and contemporary attitudes to women. Encompassing the Church, witch hunts, sexual theory, Nazism and pro-life campaigners, we arrive at today''s developing world, where women are increasingly and disproportionately at risk because of radicalised religious belief, famine, war and disease. Well-informed and researched, highly readable and thought-provoking, this is no outmoded feminist polemic: it''s a refreshingly straightforward investigation into an ancient, pervasive and enduring injustice. It deals with the fundamentals of human existence -- sex, love, violence -- that have shaped the lives

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Book SynopsisThe best tales from around the country, chosen from our popular series of Folk Tales

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Book SynopsisIF YOU DON''T KNOW SIMON SCARROW, YOU DON''T KNOW ROME!THE EAGLE AND THE WOLVES is the gripping fourth novel in Simon Scarrow''s bestselling Eagles of the Empire series. Perfect for fans of Bernard Cornwell and Conn Iggulden. ''A new book in Simon Scarrow''s long-running series about the Roman army is always a joy'' The TimesBritannia, AD 44. Occupation is never easy. The enemy is butchering their supply convoys, their garrison town is starving and the truce with the locals is uneasy at best. Young Cato, newly promoted, and veteran centurion Macro are ordered to train the Wolves and the Boars, two cohorts of barbarian Britons, and introduce them to the brutal drills of the Roman Imperial Army. Macro is confident they''ll win the natives over, but Cato worries about putting weapons into the hands of potential rebels.Ultimately, only one thing matters: is there a difference between the enemy at their gates, and the allTrade ReviewPraise for Simon Scarrow's novels: 'I really don't need this kind of competition... It's a great read' -- Bernard CornwellScarrow's [novels] rank with the best * Independent *Ferocious and compelling * Daily Express *Gripping and moving * The Times *A satisfyingly bloodthirsty, bawdy romp...perfect for Bernard Cornwell addicts who will relish its historical detail and fast-paced action. Storming stuff * Good Book Guide *A Rome full of HOUSE OF CARDS treachery... Roman soldiering at its very best - even by Scarrow's high standards - in this winning chunk of historical fiction * Sunday Sport *Rollicking good fun * Mail on Sunday *A fast-moving and exceptionally well-paced historical thriller * BBC History Magazine *

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Book SynopsisScience and religion have always been at each other’s throats, right?Trade Review'This book, though, is surely [Spencer's] magnum opus. It is astonishingly wide-ranging… and richly informed… So much complex history, theology and science could be heavy. What lightens the book is its clarity and the effervescent writing.' —The Sunday Times'With patience, balance and deep learning, Spencer… dismantles the myths that have accumulated around Galileo Galilei, Charles Darwin and other scientific figures… Filled with wit and wisdom.' —Philip Ball, TLS'Fascinating… prepare to read something genuinely fresh in what can be an extremely hackneyed debate.' —New Scientist'Magisterial and brilliant.' —Professor John Milbank‘Easily the best exploration of the complex relation between science and religion I have ever read. As exemplary in his even-handedness as in his patient research… I suspect it will become the classic work on its subject.' —Iain McGilchrist, author of The Master and his Emissary'Spencer knows his history of science. He recounts the set pieces of any such story – the trial of Galileo, Huxley vs Wilberforce, the Scopes monkey trial – with bravura.' —Spectator‘A must-read for anyone interested in this vital topic, and outstanding for its destruction of old myths about “the war between religion and science”, and for showing how complex, and various, and often positive relations have actually been.’ —Church Times, BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR'[Spencer] has a lot of interesting things to say about how exactly the often fraught relationship between science and faith has fared over the centuries… Mr. Spencer carefully reconstructs what actually happened. It’s interesting to read how the stories have become simplified and exaggerated over time… Mr. Spencer’s most important corrective is to show that Galileo’s theory raised scientific and theological questions that had not been answered at the time… a fascinating tour through a history of a difficult relationship, the fate of which is still unclear.' —Wall Street Journal'This page-turner of a book compellingly tracks the relation between science and religion, eternally bickering siblings, across two millennia. The ironies of the collaborations and oppositions between the two are brilliantly set out. You don’t have to have religious belief to recognise that science doesn’t always have the right answers. The real question: who has the authority to make statements about the natural world? Nicholas Spencer well shows that this authority – formerly in the hands of religious authorities, now usually scientific ones – has been effortfully constructed and disagreed over across time.' —Chris Wickham, author of The Inheritance of Rome'This sweeping and comprehensive look at the "war" between religion and science lays it bare as a nineteenth-century myth. Studying God’s Works – what we call "science" – was historically as important to Christianity as studying his Word. The battles we’ve mythologised – from the ancient mathematician Hypatia’s murder by a Christian mob, to Galileo kneeling before the Inquisition, to the 1925 Scopes “monkey” trial – were not about ideology, but authority. A compelling act of myth-busting.' —Nancy Marie Brown, author of The Abacus and the Cross'Illuminating… Even (or especially) those readers inclined to disagree with him will find his narrative refreshing… [Spencer] is one of Britain’s most astute observers of religious affairs… He offers an engaging tour of the intersection of religious and scientific history… Mr Spencer insightfully revisits the dust-ups involving Galileo, Darwin and John Scopes (prosecuted in Tennessee in 1925 for teaching evolution). He traces the interaction of the two disciplines in often fascinating detail.' —Economist'Highly readable... Spencer convincingly shows how, until the modern period, religion largely supported the sciences of the day.' —Financial Times'Tremendous… [Spencer's] survey of more than two millennia to the present day is consistently well-informed, witty and merciless to those wanting easy headlines. Every journalist would benefit from reading this substantial but very useful text, but all its readers will emerge better informed—and perhaps even saner.’ —Diarmaid Macculloch, Prospect'Books that attempt to encompass the whole history of science and religion within a single volume are rare. This is one of them, and it is a good one… clearly written, with plenty of humour... this superb volume... is likely to become the standard work on the subject for the general reader for many years to come, and deservedly so.' —Tablet'Nicholas Spencer is always worth reading. In this new book he brilliantly synthesises a mass of scholarly research to provide an authoritative, lucid and, at times, surprising account of the historical relations between Western science and religion. This is easily the most comprehensive and accessible history of these two "magisteria" presently available.' —Peter Harrison, author of The Territories of Science and Religion 'Spencer’s historical portrait is erudite and wide-ranging…[a] necessary [book].' —Literary Review

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Book Synopsis'Impossible to put down' Observer'One of the great books of the century' Times Literary SupplementRebecca West's epic masterpiece not only provides deep insight into the former country of Yugoslavia; it is a portrait of Europe on the brink of war. A heady cocktail of personal travelogue and historical insight, this product of an implacably inquisitive intelligence remains essential for anyone attempting to understand the history of the Balkan states, and the wider ongoing implications for a fractured Europe.Trade ReviewThe sheer quality and depth of the writing make it one of the great books of the century * * Times Literary Supplement * *Impossible to put down, both timeless and of its time - a travel book and epic narrative history brimming with passion, anger, scholarship and intuition, hatred and love * * Observer * *One of the supreme masterpieces of the twentieth century . . . As a book about Yugoslavia it's a kind of metaphysical Lonely Planet that never requires updating -- GEOFF DYERIt is hard to convey the flavour of a book so rich in observation, history, philosophy, political ideas and ironic humour * * The Times * *It is a brilliant antidote to the disease that would have us believe that these are faraway countries about which we know nothing * * Guardian * *Such incandescent writing - you find yourself wanting to mark every sentence in order to go back and relish it again -- BRIAN ENORebecca West's magnum opus . . . one of the great books of our time * * New Yorker * *You will search in vain for a more original, assured and companionable guide to former Yugoslavia * * Financial Times * *Dame Rebecca, the finest reporter of her generation, saw everything . . . A remarkably easy read * * Sunday Telegraph * *Written with a fierce intelligence that any journalist must envy and admire * * Daily Telegraph * *

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Book SynopsisAt a time when issues of gender and sexuality are as prominent as they have ever been, Gender, Sex and the Shaping of Modern Europe provides an authoritative exploration of the history of these deeply connected subjects over the last 250 years. Incorporating a blend of history and historiography, Annette F. Timm and Joshua A. Sanborn write engagingly on gender and sexuality in a way that illuminates our understanding of historical change and individual experience throughout Europe.The new and improved 3rd edition of this textbook now includes: Personal vignette textboxes which shed light on key themes through individual life stories Added material on Russia, Eastern Europe, the Holocaust and the 21st century Historiographical updates throughout that bring the text up-to-date with new scholarship 30 new images and mapsThrough 6 thematic chapters that cover democracy, capitalism, imperialism and war, Timm and Sanborn trace the social construction ofTrade ReviewThis revised and expanded version of Joshua Sanborn’s and Annette Timm’s widely acclaimed study is essential reading for students and teachers of modern European history alike. In their thorough examination of how sex and gender have shaped and were shaped by the various social, cultural, and political contexts of modern Europe, the authors bring together broad thematic discussions with a wide range of lively individual vignettes, from Catherine the Great to Idris Elba. The result is an engaging and panoramic overview of Europeans’ experiences as gendered and sexual citizens across the past two and a half centuries. * Dr Siobhán Hearne, Historian of Gender and Sexuality, University of Durham, UK *The third edition of Gender, Sex and the Shaping of Modern Europe improves on what was already an excellent text notable for its clarity, accessibility, and thoughtfulness. The inclusion of individualized vignettes at the beginning of each section brings abstract ideas to life and clearly establishes that personal is political, and vice versa. Also to be emphasized is this edition’s enhanced attention to trans lives and individuals. This updated volume remains a stand-out in the field. * Marko Dumancic, Director of Graduate Studies; Assistant Professor, Western Kentucky University, USA *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Prefaces Introduction 1. Liberty, Equality and Fraternity 2. Gendered Capitalism and its Discontents 3. The Imperial Drive and the Colonial World 4. Brothers and Sisters at War 5. The Long Sexual Revolution 6. 21st-Century Europe Conclusion Works Cited Appendix: Further Images Index

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Book SynopsisHidden in the margins of history books, classical literature, and thousands of years of stories, myths and legends, through to contemporary literature, TV and film, there is a diverse and other-worldly super community of queer heroes to discover, learn from, and celebrate. Be captivated by stories of forbidden love like Patroclus & Achilles (explored in Madeleine Miller''s bestseller Song of Achilles), join the cult of Antinous (inspiration for Oscar Wilde), get down with pansexual god Set in Egyptian myth, and fall for Zimbabwe''s trans God Mawi. And from modern pop-culture, through Dan Jones''s witty, upbeat style, learn more about 90s fan obsessions Xena: Warrior Princess and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Neil Gaiman''s American Gods and the BBC''s Doctor Who. Queer Heroes of Myth & Legend brings to life characters who are romantic, brave, mysterious, and always fantastical. It is a magnificent celebration of queerness through the ages in all its legendary glory.

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Book Synopsis''With fair-tressed Demeter, the sacred goddess, my song begins,With herself and her slim-ankled daughter, whom Aidoneus onceAbducted...''Most people are familiar, at least by repute, with the two great epics of Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, but few are aware that other poems survive that were attributed to Homer in ancient times. The Homeric Hymns are now known to be the work of various poets working in the same tradition, probably during the seventh and sixth centuries BC. They honour the Greek gods, and recount some of the most attractive of the Greek myths. Four of them (Hymns 2-5) stand out by reason of their length and quality. The Hymn to Demeter tells what happened when Hades, lord of the dead, abducted Persephone, Demeter''s daughter. The Hymn to Apollo describes Apollo''s birth and the foundation of his Delphic oracle. In the Hymn to Hermes Apollo''s cattle are stolen by a felonious infant - Hermes, god of thieves. In the Hymn to Aphrodite the goddess of love herself becomes infatuated with a mortal man, the Trojan prince Ankhises. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Trade ReviewThis welcome new translation of the Homeric Hymns offers a skilled and nuanced verse rendering that is accompanied by intelligent and helpful notes. The introductory material is brief; the end-notes more thorough yet always concise; throughout there is frequent and up-to-date reference to important bibliography on the hymns. Readers should find the translation poetic and often striking, and they will also come away with a firm sense of modern scholarship on these short epic works. * Journal of Hellenic Studies *

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Book SynopsisEmpires of the Sea shows the Mediterranean as a majestic and bloody theatre of war. Opening with the Ottoman victory in 1453 it is a breathtaking story of military crusading, Barbary pirates, white slavery and the Ottoman Empire - and the larger picture of the struggle between Islam and Christianity. Coupled with dramatic set piece battles, a wealth of riveting first-hand accounts, epic momentum and a terrific denouement at Lepanto, this is a work of history at its broadest and most compelling.

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Book SynopsisA middle school provided showers, as well as access to computers, email, and televisions, allowing the passengers to stay in touch with family and follow the news.Over the course of those four days, many of the passengers developed friendships with Gander residents that they expect to last a lifetime.Trade Review“A remarkable true story...a must read for everyone.” — Huffington Post “When you read this book, I predict tears in your eyes almost from the beginning...tears of joy and pride for the citizens of Gander, Newfoundland, who bravely stood up and said to the world ‘Today, we are all Americans.’” — Homer Hickam, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Rocket Boys “Jim DeFede has written a wonderful and engaging account that reaffirms the remarkable humanity and kindness that flourished in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.” — Gerald Posner, New York Times bestselling author of Pharma and Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK “Here the generous Newfoundlanders get due recognition.” — Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisThe Magic Lantern is one of those rare books that capture history in the making, written by an author who was witness to some of the most remarkable moments that marked the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe. Timothy Garton Ash was there in Warsaw, on 4 June, when the communist government was humiliated by Solidarity in the first semi-free elections since the Second World War. He was there in Budapest, twelve days later, when Imre Nagy - thirty-one years after his execution - was finally given his proper funeral. He was there in Berlin, as the Wall opened. And most remarkable of all, he was there in Prague, in the back rooms of the Magic Lantern theatre, with Václav Havel and the members of Civic Forum, as they made their 'Velvet Revolution'.Trade ReviewIn the future, there will probably be streets in Warsaw, Prague and Budapest bearing the name of Timothy Garton Ash -- Karel Kyncl * Independent *A wonderful combination of first-class reporting, brilliant political analysis and reflection. * New York Times Book Review *[Garton Ash's] own involvement in these events, intellectual and emotional, is of such intensity that he can speak... from the inside as well as from the outside. Yet the sense of historic dimension... is never lost. And the quality of the writing places it clearly in the category of good literature. * George Kennan *Along with the historian's long view, Garton Ash has an eye and an ear for the telling detail. * Washington Post Book World *Table of Contents1: Witness and History 2: Warsaw: The First Election 3: Budapest: The Last Funeral 4: Berlin: Wall's End 5: Prague: Inside the Magic Lantern 6: The Year of Truth 7: Thirty Years On: Time for a New Liberation?

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisJohn Kampfner is an award-winning author, broadcaster and foreign-affairs commentator. He began his career reporting from East Berlin (during the fall of the Wall) and Moscow (during the collapse of communism) for the Telegraph. After covering British politics for the Financial Times and BBC, he edited the New Statesman. He is a regular TV and radio pundit, documentary maker and author of six previous books, including the bestselling Blair's Wars. His most recent book, Why the Germans Do it Better, was a top ten bestseller, Book of the Year in the Guardian, Economist and the New Statesman, and sold over 100,000 copies in all editions.

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Book SynopsisWinner of the Duff Cooper and Lionel Gelber prizesIn 1932-33, nearly four million Ukrainians died of starvation, having been deliberately deprived of food. It is one of the most devastating episodes in the history of the twentieth century. With unprecedented authority and detail, Red Famine investigates how this happened, who was responsible, and what the consequences were. It is the fullest account yet published of these terrible events.The book draws on a mass of archival material and first-hand testimony only available since the end of the Soviet Union, as well as the work of Ukrainian scholars all over the world. It includes accounts of the famine by those who survived it, describing what human beings can do when driven mad by hunger. It shows how the Soviet state ruthlessly used propaganda to turn neighbours against each other in order to expunge supposedly ''anti-revolutionary'' elements. It also records the actions of extraordinary iTrade ReviewMeticulously researched, blisteringly written -- Dominic Sandbrook * The Sunday Times (Books of the Year) *Magisterial and heartbreaking -- Simon Sebag Montefiore * Evening Standard *Compelling in its detail and in its empathy -- Nick Rennison * The Sunday Times *Her account will surely become the standard treatment of one of history's great political atrocities -- Timothy Snyder * Washington Post *An exhaustive, authoritative and eloquent book. She deals with questions that have hitherto lacked unequivocal answers -- Donald Rayfield * Literary Review *

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Book SynopsisWinner of the the British Academy Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding 2018 Winner of the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year 2017 Winner of the 2017 Highland Book Prize Winner of the Saltire Society Book of the Year 2017 Shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize 2018 Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2017 Shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize 2017 Shortlisted for the Bread and Roses Award 2018 Shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 2017 Shortlisted for the National Circle of Critics Award 2017 When Kapka Kassabova was a child, the borderzone between Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece was rumoured to be an easier crossing point into the West than the Berlin Wall so it swarmed with soldiers, spies and fugitives. On holidays close to the border on the Black Sea coast, she remembers playing on the beach, only miles from where an electrified fence bristled, its barbs pointing inwards toward the enemy: the holiday-makers, the potential escapees. Today, this densely forested landscape is no longer heavily militarised, but it is scarred by its past. In Border, Kapka Kassabova sets out on a journey to meet the people of this triple border - Bulgarians, Turks, Greeks, and the latest wave of refugees fleeing conflict further afield. She discovers a region that has been shaped by the successive forces of history: by its own past migration crises, by communism, by two World wars, by the Ottoman Empire, and - older still - by the ancient legacy of myths and legends. As Kapka Kassabova explores this enigmatic region in the company of border guards and treasure hunters, entrepreneurs and botanists, psychic healers and ritual fire-walkers, refugees and smugglers, she traces the physical and psychological borders that criss-cross its villages and mountains, and goes in search of the stories that will unlock its secrets. Border is a sharply observed portrait of a little-known corner of Europe, and a fascinating meditation on the borderlines that exist between countries, between cultures, between people, and within each of us.Trade ReviewIn Kassabova's study these tragic borderlands are brought to life with poetic grace, and her interaction with their inhabitants confers a haunting power on her journey -- Colin ThubronThe literature of place is crying out for a talent as magical, brilliant and original as Kapka Kassabova's. She writes with taut intelligence and poetic intensity, a shrewd and grown-up worldliness and a rapt sense of all that isn't in the world, a combination that I've been looking for this entire century. When Border arrived in my life, I felt as if I'd been struck by lightning -- Pico Iyer'Kassabova writes with such energy and style that you feel she could visit the dullest place on earth and make it burst into life. But she has found somewhere extraordinary, full of dazzling human stories played out against a ceaseless round of brutal wars and shifting empires. A brilliant and hugely satisfying book' -- Philip MarsdenShe has achieved something remarkable: a book about borders which makes the reader feel sumptuously free. An effect achieved by the way she moves between literary borders so gracefully: travelogue and existential drama; political history and poetry -- Peter PomerentsevLike the places it describes, this book holds you in a kind of mysterious electrical charge. It hums with the mystery, superstition, and terrible beauty of a place crushed between man-made borders but also defiantly announcing its sacred otherness. I can't stop thinking about it -- Frances Stonor SaundersThis is a dazzling work of art and reportage, an iridescent book, glittering with stories of horror, comedy and actual magic. Kassabova is a brilliant traveller, an astonishing interviewer and writer with a near clairvoyant understanding of the real lives of men and women. In Border, she follows some fierce, sorcerous current which carries us all towards frontiers; there is an urgent and engrossing story here -- Horatio Clare[A] brilliantly diverse and skilful writer... [Kassabova's] narrative nonfiction is almost renowned... Fascinating -- Exciting Books Coming in 2017 * Big Issue *[This] beautiful, tragic and universal new book may just be the most important you read in this year of Brexit * Skinny *This smokily intense and quaveringly powerful travel book is about the wild, forested and tragic borderland between Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. Kassabova [...] has the travel-writer's core skill of acute sensitivity to her physical environment, together with a poet's turn of phrase and a poet's emotional rawness... Kassabova is, above all, sensationally good at meeting extraordinary people, and that is surely the travel writer's essential kit... [Border] is aromatic, lyrical, disturbing - and very, very fine -- James McConachie * Sunday Times *[Kassabova] has an old-fashioned gift for storytelling... Border brilliantly reveals the effects of a millennium of kaleidoscopic shifting. Thoughtful and impressive -- Sara Wheeler * Observer *With the deft touch of a historian, she connects the voices of those who have struggled to cross borders across the centuries... Kassabova is a poet, and her writing is beautiful - moving and witty by turns... In a world ever more divided, ever more threatened by Mexican walls, restrictive new passports and fear of the unknown, we need books like this -- Alev Scott * Financial Times *[Kassabova's] hunger and fascination with this little known region has resulted in Border, one of those books that elevates travel writing to art... Mystery, of course, is at the heart of her book. The mystery of marginal points and marginal people -- Teddy Jamieson * Herald *[A] timely and moving book... Her writing powerfully weaves history, folklore, reportage and personal reflections... Border is illuminating, passionate and sometimes funny. It brilliantly ventriloquizes the voice of this mysterious, plundered part of Europe, revealing the ironies of nationalism and the profound way in which ethnicity can affect the human psyche * Country Life *A marvellous book about a magical part of the world... It shows more starkly than anything else I have read what the border did to the people who lived along it, and how its legacy endures... Kassabova, a poet, writes lyrically and effectively about the astonishing natural beauty of much of the area... as [she] arcs across countries and centuries in an effort to free herself from the enchantment of this strangest of regions. In the end she leaves, but the spell remains -- Mark Mazower * Guardian *Written with compassion and intelligence, the prose here is as clear and fresh as a mountain stream. This is a timely and important book, and I can't recommend it highly enough -- Doug Johnstone * Big Issue *An accomplished poet and polyglot, [Kassabova] writes exquisite prose, dripping with scorn for the politicians whose bone-headed rules and careless greed despoil the land and ruin the lives of those who still live there -- Edward Lucas * 1843 Magazine *Kapka Kassabova's poignant, erudite and witty third book, border, brings hidden history vividly to light... She treads lightly but distinctly through the stories she tells, displaying an enviable mixture of rapport with her subjects and detachment from their peculiarities... It is a "melancholy miracle", writes Ms Kassabova, that "odd ragged bits of this one-rich human tapestry" survive. They could have no better chronicler * Economist *An exceptional travel book that's every bit as good as the writing of Patrick Leigh-Fermor * Sunday Times *This is an exceptional book, a tale of travelling and listening closely, and it brings something altogether new to the mounting literature on the story of modern migration... the strength of Kassabova's book lies in the skill with which she interweaves the narrative of [today's refugees] into that of the inhabitants of the borderlands, giving the context for their lives in a way that the dozens of current books on the travels and travails of modern refugees seldom do... an important reminder that refugees are not a separate species, moving inexorably away and towards, but part of a vast, complicated pattern of history... Border makes for timely reading -- Caroline Moorehead * New Statesman *[A] valuable book [that] brings to life not just a neglected region but also one of the themes of our time: borders, open and closed... A book of our time -- Simon Kuper * Spectator *A magical book... Kassabova captures the lingering ethnic tapestry of the region, its pagan-like religions and fire-walking cults, in poetic prose of mystical elegance * Scottish Legal News *Kapka Kassabova is a modern Scheherazade - a dazzling writer who tells stories as if her life depended on it... As this wonderful book goes on, a kind of deep background music begins to be heard: themes and images which recur and weave all the voices into a pattern... Spell binding -- Neal Ascheron * Scottish Review of Books *Like a sharp-eyed magpie, [Kassabova] travels across the borders in this place with three alphabets, picking up intriguing titbits of history and folklore... With a lightness of touch, [...] the tragedies, ironies and curiosities of this often-overlooked corner of Europe, with hotchpotch of peoples, are captured by Kassabova's vivid phrasings -- Robbie Millen * The Times *Passionately lived... [Kassabova's] descriptions of place are lyrical and gorgeous... but it's her encounters with people which bring the book to life... She lets the echoes in the stories she hears tell a wider story -- James Robinson * Literary Review *[Kassabova] seques seamlessly between myth and history, memoir and reportage. Border is a great [travel book]. But it's more than that: it's a big-hearted book for what seems an increasingly mean-spirited age. It spells out the human consequences of nationalism and totalitarianism; of divisions and fences and walls designed to keep "them" from "us" -- Michael Kerr * Daily Telegraph *[A] remarkable personal exploration of the borderland between Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey. The Bulgarian-born poet converses with strangers - guards, treasure-hunters, botanists, refugees, smugglers - to release unusual, vivid, poignant human stories. She comes to it with a poet's sensibility and a journalist's curiosity. A wonderful, luminous combination * New Internationalist *Haunting... a splendid book -- William Armstrong * Hurriet Daily News *Kassabova writes beautifully about the millions of refugees exchanged between Greece and Turkey -- Sameer Rahim * Prospect Magazine *An extraordinary book... There are moments of dynamism and hope in these pages... It's to be hoped that Kassabova, with her glorious prose and open heart, always takes care but never abandons the quest [of storytelling] * Geographical Review *This exceptional book about a journey through Bulgaria's dark, often magical borderland is every bit as good as the travel writing of Patrick Leigh Fermor * Sunday Times *She picks up intriguing bits about folklore, history and modern living [and] has a light touch... Vividly written * The Times *Border is not just a topical book but an urgent one, for is spells out the human consequences of nationalism and totalitarianism; of a narrow focus on identity and ethnicity; of divisions and fences and walls designed to keep 'them' from 'us' * Telegraph *Kassabova's Border is quite possible the book of the year. Both timely and timeless, this travelogue around the outer reaches of Europe has Cold War history echoing into our modern times, where desperate refugees attempt to cross those all-too important lines on a map. It is beautifully poetic, heart-breaking, and humane. The book will transform you * Skinny *Exquisite -- Featured in round up of best books on Europe’s troubled politics * Independent *Her lyrical memoir-cum-history of borderlands among Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey, has only become more topical, as the Turkish-Greek land crossing for migrants is increasingly as treacherous as the Aegean -- Book of the Year selected by AE Stallings * TLS *Not just topical, but urgent, for it spells out the human consequences of nationalism and totalitarianism; of a narrow focus on identity and ethnicity; of divisions and fences and walls designed to keep "them" from "us" -- Michael Kerr * Sunday Telegraph *[Kassabova] reveals how people define borders - and how they define us in turn...a startlingly relevant read * Wanderlust *

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Book SynopsisThe story of how a group of warriors, driven by faith, greed and wanderlust, carved out new Christian-ruled states in the Middle East is one of the most extraordinary of all epics. The crusaders'' stunning initial success started a sequence of great Crusades, each with its own story, that fundamentally shaped the Christian and Muslim worlds for two centuries, until the last Crusader castles were finally expunged. The energy and commitment that sent army after army into the eastern Mediterranean also led to the invasion and conversion of Central and Baltic Europe, Spain, Portugal, the destruction of the Cathars in Provence and the settlement of America. Told with great verve and authority, God''s War is the definitive account of a fascinating but also horrifying story.We are still living with the images and legends of the crusadesTyerman tells us how the Church set about preaching the crusades, exploiting the perennial pessimism and guilt of the European nobility of the Middle Ages. He shows how crusading ideology penetrated the religious sensibility of the period, as well as its secular fiction and poetryOf all the modern histories of the crusades it is the shrewdest, the most reliable and the most complete.' The Spectator

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Book Synopsis''Only with the greatest of simplifications, for the sake of convenience, can we say Africa. In reality, except as a geographical term, Africa doesn''t exist''. Ryszard Kapuscinski has been writing about the people of Africa throughout his career. In astudy that avoids the official routes, palaces and big politics, he sets out to create an account of post-colonial Africa seen at once as a whole and as a location that wholly defies generalised explanations. It is both a sustained meditation on themosaic of peoples and practises we call ''Africa'', and an impassioned attempt to come to terms with humanity itself as it struggles to escape from foreign domination, from the intoxications of freedom, from war and from politics as theft.

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Book SynopsisAlison Weir is one of Britain's top-selling historians. She is the author of numerous works of history and historical fiction, specialising in the medieval and Tudor periods. Her bestselling history books include The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Elizabeth of York and The Lost Tudor Princess. Her novels include Innocent Traitor, Katherine of Aragon: The True Queen and Anne Boleyn: A King's Obsession. She is an Honorary Life Patron of Historic Royal Palaces and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She lives and works in Surrey.Trade ReviewHer biography reads like a medieval romance, a marvellous intermingling of fact with legend...fascinating...splendid * Literary Review *Weir approaches Eleanor's story with an objective eye and a mass of primary and secondary source material. The result is as vivid as it is informative * The Times *Sensible and eminently readable * Times Literary Supplement *When you finish the book you feel you have been put painlessly (but not necessarily without tears) in possession of the facts of this extraordinary, indefatigable woman, her sufferings and triumphs -- Bevis Hillier * Spectator, Books of the Year *Triumphantly done * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisArranged thematically, Vikings: A History of the Norse People is an illustrated guide to the Norsemen, from exploration, trade and settlement to weaponry, religion, and their legacy.

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Book SynopsisA remarkable popular history of the English Civil War, from the perspectives of those involved in this most significant turning point in British history.The compelling narrative draws on new sources such as letters, memoirs, ballads and plays to bring to life the Roundheads and Cavaliers, the foot soldiers, war widows and witchfinders of one of the most significant turning points in British history, culminating in Oliver Cromwell's triumph and the execution of Charles I.By blending the political and the personal, Diane Purkiss illuminates both the ideologies behind the English Civil War and the fears of those who fought in it; the men who were destroyed by the conflict and those, such as Oliver Cromwell, who were defined by it.Trade Review‘Rich, vivid and passionate…a moving, lyrical and principled piece of writing…Purkiss has a gift for evocation.’ Independent ‘You begin to get close to what it would have been like to live through the nine momentous years from 1640 to 1649…it would be hard to imagine anything more irresistible than this rich layer cake of a book, crammed with the stories and the voices that make history human.’ Guardian ‘Purkiss has an eye for the narrative vignette that can illuminate the age.’ Sunday Times ‘Wonderful…Purkiss offers a sumptuous portrait gallery of the men and women who lived, wrote and died during this turbulent period…A joyous read.’ Daily Telegraph ‘Narrative history at its best: gripping, heartfelt, complex.’ Mail on Sunday ‘This book vigorously brings the horror and humanity of the conflict to life.’ Financial Times ‘Light in touch, though grounded in an enormous wealth of documentary material this “people's history” shows how England’s men and women coped with quite extraordinary times.’ Scotsman

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Book SynopsisToni Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. She was the author of many novels, including The Bluest Eye, Sula, Beloved, Paradise and Love. She received the National Book Critics Circle Award and a Pulitzer Prize for her fiction and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honour, in 2012 by Barack Obama. Toni Morrison died on 5 August 2019 at the age of eighty-eight.Trade ReviewToni Morrison makes me believe in God. She makes me believe in a divine being, because luck and genetics don’t seem to come close to explaining her * Guardian *A beautiful and important book * The Times *Powerful, elemental... The issues Morrison explores go to the root of what humanity is. They could not be more important * Guardian *Left me trembling at the sheer brilliance of its storytelling and the unassailable dignity of its purpose * Evening Standard *So enthralling that you'll want to read it more than once * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisEighteenth-century Britain was the world’s leading centre for the slave trade. Bury the Chains by Adam Hochschild, author of the Duff Cooper prize-winning King Leopold's Ghost, charts the history of the moment everything changed. In 1788, the slave trade flourishing across the British Empire, amassing wealth beyond measure. Bury the Chains is the remarkable story of the men who sought to end slavery and brought the issue to the heart of British political life.Hochschild, lauded for his scholarly prowess and engrossing storytelling, transports us from London's bustling coffee houses to the West Indies' backbreaking sugar plantations. Exploring the roles of key figures in the movement such as John Newton, Thomas Clarkson, William Wilberforce, Granville Sharp, and former slave Olaudah Equiano, it tells the history of the battle against an era of abhorrent human exploitation, illuminating the inception of the international human rig

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Book SynopsisA concise, illustrated history of Portugal, offering an introduction to the people and culture of the country, its empire, and its search for economic modernisation right up till the present day. This third edition encapsulates recent changes to Portugal and Europe to bring the story up to date.Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Peoples, cultures and colonies; 2. Rebellion and independence in the seventeenth century; 3. The Golden Age and the earthquake in the eighteenth century; 4. Brazilian independence and the Portuguese Revolution; 5. The bourgeois monarchy and the republicans; 6. The dictatorship and the African empire; 7. Democracy and the European Community; Afterword: entering the twenty-first century.

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Book SynopsisWere the first scientists hermetic philosophers? What do these occult origins of modern science tell us about the universe today? The Forbidden Universe reveals the secret brotherhood that defined the world, and perhaps discovered the mind of God.All the pioneers of science, from Copernicus to Newton via Galileo, were inspired by Hermeticism. Men such as Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Leibniz, Bacon, Kepler, Tycho Brahe - even Shakespeare - owed much of their achievements to basically occult beliefs - the hermetica. In this fascinating study, Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince go in search of the Hermetic origins of modern science and prove that not everything is as it seems and that over the past 400 years there has been a secret agenda behind our search for truth. From the age of Leonardo da Vinci, the influence of hermetic thinking upon the greatest minds in history has been hidden, a secret held by a forbidden brotherhood in search of the mind of God.

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Book SynopsisA vivid journey around England's great seaside resorts, exploring their history and current struggle, and what they reveal about England, from the award-winning author of Love of Country.

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Book SynopsisAs a QC tries to get a pardon in Scotland for those accused of witchcraft in the past, this new edition of Scottish Witches explains why Scotland pursued witches - 4000 people were accused of witchcraft and 2000 were killed by strangulation at the stake, burning and drowning. Prejudice, discrimination, intolerance and fear possessed Scotland before and during the Reformation and caused King James I and VI to lead a period of superstition, intolerance and killing.Table of ContentsIntroduction PROVE IT - the signs of a witch Confession; Detection - Spot the Witch; Witch-Pricking; Ordeal by Water; Ordeal of Touch; Walking; Torture; Reputation; Evidence; Escape from the Flames; The Sentence; The Cost THE GUILTY ONES: FAMOUS WITCH TRIALS Bessie Dunlop of Ayrshire Katherine Ross, Lady Foulis The North Berwick Witches Margaret Barclay of Irvine Alexander Hamilton, Elizabeth Steven and Katherine Oswald of East Lothian Agnes Finnie of Edinburgh Robert 'Hob' Grieve Marie Lamont of Inverkip Isobel Gowdie Major Thomas Weir and Grizel Weir Sir George Maxwell and the Witches of Pollokshaws The Witches of Bo'ness Christian Shaw of Bargarran and the Paisley Witches The Witches of Pittenweem THE STUFF OF LEGENDS Michael Scott - The Wondrous Wizard Lord Soulis Alexander Skene Robert Grierson of Lag John Graham of Claverhouse Aleister Crowley WITCHCRAFT IN POETRY AND STORYTELLING Poetry The Earl of Brodie and the Hare The Witch of Laggan The Lady and the Horse SCOTTISH WITCHCRAFT IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY INDEX

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2023WINNER OF THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE 2023SHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH ACADEMY PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2023A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEARA BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEKAn indelible exploration of the Cultural Revolution and how it shapes China today, Red Memory uncovers forty years of silence through the rarely heard stories of individuals who lived through Mao's decade of madness.'Very good and very instructive.' MARGARET ATWOOD'Written with an almost painful beauty.' JONATHAN FREEDLAND'Took my breath away.' BARBARA DEMICK'Haunting.' OLIVER BURKEMAN'A masterpiece.' JULIA LOVELLA 13-year-old Red Guard revels in the great adventure, and struggles with her doubts. A silenced composer, facing death, determines to capture the turmoil. An idealistic student becomes the 'corpse master' . . .More than fifty years on, the Cultural Revolution's scar runs through the heart of Chinese society, and through the souls of its citizens. Stationed in Beijing for the Guardian, Tania Branigan came to realise that this brutal and turbulent decade continues to propel and shape China to this day. Yet official suppression and personal trauma have conspired in national amnesia: it exists, for the most part, as an absence.Red Memory explores the stories of those driven to confront the era, who fear or yearn for its return. What happens to a society when you can no longer trust those closest to you? What happens to the present when the past is buried, exploited or redrawn? And how do you live with yourself when the worst is over?

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Book SynopsisIn 2017 an intense fundraising campaign ensured that what came to be known as 'the Galloway Hoard' was saved for the nation. Since then work has been ongoing to preserve and understand it. Over 5kg of silver bullion, many unique and enigmatic gold objects, the rare preservation of textiles and an unusual range of other materials, make the Hoard the richest collection of Viking-age objects every found in Britain and Ireland. Dr Martin Goldberg and Dr Mary Davis provide the first full description of the Hoard and place the find in a wider historical and geographical context.Table of ContentsForword Introduction Silver bullion The cross The lower bullion deposit A binding contract? A time capsule Unpacking the vessel More Anglo-Saxon connections Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard Exploring the past, looking to the future References Bibliography Acknowledgements

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Book Synopsis'The next Bill Bryson' New York TimesTwo tigers cannot share the same mountain - Chinese proverbDespite geographical proximity, cultural similarities, and shared status as highly powerful nations, China, Korea and Japan love to hate each other. Why?In search of an answer, Michael Booth journeys across East Asia to explore the mutual animosity that frequently threatens to draw the world into all-out war. From misjudged cake decorations to electoral meddling, contradictory origin myths to territorial disputes, this deeply researched and hugely entertaining book shows that no conflict is too small to keep the fires of neighbourly hostility burning.'A fine summary of East Asian cultures and conflicts...useful, fact-packed and readable' SpectatorTrade ReviewIn this enjoyable and information-packed travelogue…[Booth] is a terrific observer… his chatty style disarms his subjects and entertains the reader. It is a hard act to pull off when dealing with tragedy. His deft, accurate summaries of the contentious history in each place work well. -- Michael Sheridan * Sunday Times *Three Tigers, One Mountain is a fine summary of East Asian cultures and conflicts, with a chummy, affable tone and profound interest in its subject… useful, fact-packed and readable. -- Mike Cormack * Spectator *In this entertaining travel book…[Booth] becomes our genial host on a tour of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China… It’s a credit to Booth’s skill as a writer that he keeps us both entertained and informed in every chapter. -- Jasper Becker * Literary Review *[Booth is] an engaging travel companion. Not only is he serious about his reportage, but he is also a fine descriptive writer… the journey [in Three Tigers, One Mountain] is well worth the ticket. -- Christian Tyler * Oldie *Four years after Booth exploded the myth of the Scandi utopia, he enhances his reputation for getting to the truth of societal attitudes with this exploration of why, despite sharing much, the giants of East Asia - China, Japan and Korea - just don't get on. * i *

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Book Synopsis''A short but quietly devastating book, in which Overy adds new perspectives to a subject that has often been approached from a narrowly American angle... Overy''s book is a sombre reminder that the border between civilisation and savagery is wafer-thin.'' - Philip Snow, Literary Review A remarkable account of the terrible climax of the Second World War in Asia, published to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing.In the closing months of the Second World War hundreds of thousands of Japanese, mostly civilians, died in a final outburst of violence from the air. American planes were beginning to run low on plausible targets when it was decided to use two atomic weapons in a final, terrible flourish to try to end the war. Richard Overy's remarkable new book rethinks how we should regard this last stage of the war and the role of the bombing. This book explores the way in which the willingness to kill civilians and destroy cities became normalized in the course of a horrific war as moral concerns were blunted and scientists, airmen, and politicians followed a strategy of mass destruction they would never have endorsed before the war began. But it also engages with the new scholarship that shows how complex the effort to end the war was in Japan, where surrender' was entirely foreign to Japanese culture.

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Book SynopsisThe Orcadian archipelago is a museum of archaeological wonders. The Orcadian Neolithic is home to some of the best-preserved Neolithic sites in Europe: here we can find evidence of a dynamic society with connections binding Orkney to Ireland, to southern Britain and to continental Europe. Yet there is much that remains unknown about the societies that created these sites. In Orcadia, Mark Edmonds traces the development of the Orcadian Neolithic from the early fourth millennium BC through to the end of the period nearly two thousand years later, using artefacts, architecture and the wider landscape to recreate the lives of Neolithic communities across the region.Trade ReviewA thought-provoking, imaginative exploration of the archeological landscapes of Neolithic Orkney... Edmonds demonstrates so vividly, "a stone is rarely just a stone"' * BBC Countryfile *Edmonds is a visionary who combines intellectual rigour with creative imagination -- Alan Garner

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Book SynopsisFrom the international bestselling author and notable journalist Aldo Cazzullo comes a brilliantly researched and extremely accessible journey through the history and legacy of the Roman Empire.The only way to narrate over a thousand years of history is to understand what it has left us. To tell the reasons, the things and the stories, thanks to which Roman civilization is alive.From its mythical foundations and epic construction to its enduring historical and cultural impact, the ancient Roman Empire has long fascinated readers across the world. In The Neverending Empire esteemed Italian journalist Aldo Cazzullo describes an exciting new historical perspective: that the Roman Empire never fell. In fact, its influence reaches further and deeper than ever.Beginning with the origins of Rome, and the literary myth of Aeneas and Romulus, Cazzullo takes the reader on a page-turning voyage through ancient history, bringing to life the most captivating moments and characters of a dominant Empire: the republican age, with heroic men and women willing to die for their country. The adventure of coup plotters like Catiline and revolutionaries like Spartacus, the slave who inspired rebels of every age. The extraordinary stories of Julius Caesar and Octavian Augustus, two of the greatest leaders to have lived.Cazzullo goes on to draw fascinating parallels between the ancient and modern world, revealing how Rome lives on, across every facet of life and society. The ancient Romans have inspired poets, and artists, from Dante to Hollywood. They have dictated the rules of war, architecture, language and law. They have inspired America's democratic influence and the digital revolution led by Mark Zuckerberg, a great admirer of Emperor Augustus: the first man to lead a multi-ethnic community of people who didn't know each other but shared language, images and culture.From the Napoleonic to the British regimes, the ideas and philosophies of ancient Rome have been much imitated, but never surpassed. This is the remarkable story of an enduring Empire. An Empire that never died. An Empire that lives on, forever.

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Book SynopsisThe seventeenth century, writes Mark Kishlansky, was “a wheel of transformation in perpetual motion,” a period of political and religious upheaval that defined the nation for decades to come and remains critical for understanding the nation today.   Beginning with the accession of James I and concluding with the death of Queen Anne, this compelling account describes the tempestuous events that took place during the Stuart dynasty and provides lively pen portraits of the many fascinating personalities involved. Conspiracies, rebellions, and revolutions jostle side by side with court intrigues, political infighting and the rise of parties. In 1603 Britain was an isolated archipelago; by 1714 it had emerged among the intellectual, commercial, and military centers of the world.   “Kishlansky’s century saw one king executed, another exiled, the House of Lords abolished, and the Church of England reconstructed along Presbyterian lines . . .Table of ContentsThe social world; the political world; the Scottish ascension, 1603-1618; the Duke of clubs, 1618-1628; the reign of Charles I, 1629-1637; rebellion and civil war, 1637-1649; civil war and revolution, 1645-1649; saints and soldiers, 1649-1658; the restoration settlements, 1659-1667; for church and king, 1668-1685; a Protestant succession, 1685-1689; a European union, 1689-1702; Great Britain, 1702-1714.

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Book SynopsisThroughout history, maps have been fundamental in shaping our view of the world, and our place in it. But far from being purely scientific objects, maps of the world are unavoidably ideological and subjective, intimately bound up with the systems of power and authority of particular times and places. Mapmakers do not simply represent the world, they construct it out of the ideas of their age. In this scintillating book, Jerry Brotton examines the significance of 12 maps - from the almost mystical representations of ancient history to the satellite-derived imagery of today. He vividly recreates the environments and circumstances in which each of the maps was made, showing how each conveys a highly individual view of the world. Brotton shows how each of his maps both influenced and reflected contemporary events and how, by reading it, we can better understand the worlds that produced it.Although the way we map our surroundings is changing, Brotton argues that maps today are noTrade Review[A] fascinating and panoramic new history of the cartographer's art... Brotton's idea of tracing within maps the patterns of human thought is a wonderful one -- Tom Holland * Guardian *As this mesmerising and beautifully illustrated book demonstrates, maps have, since ancient times, carried vast symbolic weight ... rich and endlessly absorbing history -- Sinclair McKay * Daily Telegraph *An elegant, powerfully argued variation on the theme of knowledge as power and ignorance as powerlessness -- David Horspool * Guardian *Rich and adventurous -- John Carey * Sunday Times *An achievement of evocation....a fascinating and thought-provoking book -- Anthony Sattin * Literary Review *Brotton is acutely sensitive to the social, political and religious contexts which unravel why maps were made, for whom and with what axes to grind -- Robert Mayhew * History Today *A highly rewarding study -- Simon Garfield * Mail on Sunday *Engrossing reading -- Carl Wilkinson * Financial Times *The intellectual background to these images is conveyed with beguiling erudition ... There is nothing more subversive than a map -- Andrew Linklater * Spectator *It is a wonderful history, which will delight anyone with an interest in history and geography -- David Wooton * TLS *

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Book SynopsisWinner of the Duff Cooper Prize for History, the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography, the American Library in Paris Award, the Franco-British Society Literary Prize and the Grand Prix de la Biographie Politique du TouquetA SUNDAY TIMES, THE TIMES, DAILY TELEGRAPH, NEW STATESMAN, SPECTATOR, FINANCIAL TIMES, TLS BOOK OF THE YEAR''Masterly ... awesome reading ... an outstanding biography'' Max Hastings, Sunday TimesIn six weeks in the early summer of 1940, France was over-run by German troops and quickly surrendered. The French government of Marshal Pétain sued for peace and signed an armistice. One little-known junior French general, refusing to accept defeat, made his way to England. On 18 June he spoke to his compatriots over the BBC, urging them to rally to him in London. ''Whatever happens, the flame of French resistance must not be extinguished and will not be extinguished.'' At that moment, Charles de Gaulle entereTrade ReviewJulian Jackson's biography is a worthy monument to this extraordinary figure. He has a good eye for the telling quotation and a magnificent capacity to place de Gaulle, one of the most fascinating subjects in twentieth-century politics, in his historical and political setting. The result is a wonderful history of modern France disguised as the biography of a statesman. -- Mark Mazower * New York Review of Books *Scholarship of the highest class ... a truly great book, for after this all other biographies can be cast aside. -- Simon Heffer * Sunday Telegraph *Only a great biography could do justice to such a man. This one does it, magnificently. -- Noel Malcolm * Daily Telegraph *More than just another, bigger, biography ... he has the skill and style to maintain a dramatic narrative over nearly 800 pages of text -- Robert Tombs * Spectator *A suitably monumental achievement. -- Lewis Jones * The Times *

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Book Synopsis*Winner of the 2020 Lionel Gelber Prize*FINANCIAL TIMES, ECONOMIST, PROSPECT and EVENING STANDARD BOOK OF THE YEAR PICKA landmark book that completely transforms our understanding of the crisis of liberalism, from two pre-eminent intellectualsWhy did the West, after winning the Cold War, lose its political balance?In the early 1990s, hopes for the eastward spread of liberal democracy were high. And yet the transformation of Eastern European countries gave rise to a bitter repudiation of liberalism itself, not only in the East but also back in the heartland of the West.In this brilliant work of political psychology, Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes argue that the supposed end of history turned out to be only the beginning of an Age of Imitation. Reckoning with the history of the last thirty years, they show that the most powerful force behind the wave of populist xenophobia that began in Eastern Europe stems from resentment at the post-1989 imperative to become Westernized.Through this prism, the Trump revolution represents an ironic fulfillment of the promise that the nations exiting from communist rule would come to resemble the United States. In a strange twist, Trump has elevated Putin''s Russia and Orbán''s Hungary into models for the United States.Written by two pre-eminent intellectuals bridging the East/West divide, The Light that Failed is a landmark book that sheds light on the extraordinary history of our Age of Imitation.Trade ReviewA brilliant, original book on the crisis of modern liberalism. . . a must read to understand our present discontents -- Lionel Barber * Financial Times Books of the Year *If you read one book to understand the state of the world today, make it this one. Aphoristic, counter-intuitive and amusing, a single page provides more insight into populism than libraries of books on Brexit or Trump. . . Extraordinary and compelling. . . Its subject matter is bleak but the deep learning, humour and humanity of its authors shines through -- Mark Leonard * Prospect *A brilliant explanation of the mess we are in. . . written with wonderfully dry wit * Evening Standard Books of the Year *An important book that fizzes with ideas. . . There is a smart insight or elegant paradox on almost every page. . . This book poses in stark terms the dilemma for those who took for granted the ideas that created the postwar western world * Sunday Times *Sharp, polemical and ideas-packed * Economist *Compelling and witty * Prospect Books of the Year *An unflinchingly honest explanation of what has gone wrong in the west - and the east - since 1989 * Financial Times *A bracing analysis of post-Cold War politics, upending cherished assumptions and forcing us to look afresh at the complex dialectic of liberalism and illiberalism -- George SorosThis is a book about imitation by a couple of utterly inimitable authors. It is the most original explanation I've read of the self-destruction of the liberal West as universal utopia. Scathing yet fair -- Peter Pomerantsev, author of Nothing Is True and Everything Is PossibleWitty, incisive, devastating: an unforgettable analysis of why the light of liberalism failed in Eastern Europe, and why resentment towards imitation of the West has fueled the furies of the populist revolt -- Michael Ignatieff, President of Central European University, Budapest

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Book Synopsis*WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2018**WINNER OF THE PUSHKIN HOUSE BOOK PRIZE 2019*''As moving as it is painstakingly researched. . . a cracking read'' Viv Groskop, Observer''A riveting account of human error and state duplicity. . . rightly being hailed as a classic'' Hannah Betts, Daily TelegraphOn 26 April 1986 at 1.23am a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Soviet Ukraine exploded. While the authorities scrambled to understand what was occurring, workers, engineers, firefighters and those living in the area were abandoned to their fate. The blast put the world on the brink of nuclear annihilation, contaminating over half of Europe with radioactive fallout.In Chernobyl, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy draws on recently opened archives to recreate these events in all their drama. A moment by moment account of the heroes, perpetrators and victims of a trTrade ReviewAn insightful and important book, that often reads like a good thriller, and that exposes the danger of mixing powerful technology with irresponsible politics -- Yuval Noah Harari, author of SapiensAs moving as it is painstakingly researched, this book is a tour de force and a cracking read. . . Without losing any detail or nuance, Plokhy has a knack for making complicated things simple while still profound -- Viv Groskop * Observer *A work of deep scholarship and powerful stroytelling. Plokhy is the master of the telling detail -- Victor Sebestyen * Sunday Times *A compelling history of the 1986 disaster and its aftermath. . . Plokhy's well-paced narrative plunges the reader into the sweaty, nervous tension of the Chernobyl control room -- Daniel Beer * Guardian *The first comprehensive history of the Chernobyl disaster. . . here at last is the monumental history the disaster deserves -- Julie McDowall * The Times *Plokhy, a Harvard professor of Ukrainian background, is ideally placed to tell the harrowing story of Chernobyl. . . he has an immense knowledge of Russian and Ukrainian history and maintains the highest standards of scholarship -- Tony Barber * Financial Times *A meticulous account of the disaster - and how the Soviet authorities tried to cover it up. . . A worthy winner of this year's Baillie Gifford prize for nonfiction -- Robbie Millen * The Times Books of the Year *A riveting account of human error and state duplicity. . . rightly being hailed as a classic -- Hannah Betts * Daily Telegraph *A masterful retelling. . . Mr Plokhy's book will endure as a definitive history * Economist *

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Book SynopsisA feast for beer geeks and history buffs alike, In the Land of Ninkasi tells the story of the world''s first great beer culture. In this authoritative but light-hearted account of beers gone by, archaeologist Tate Paulette brings the famous land between the rivers back to life in vivid detail. We meet not only the beers of ancient Mesopotamia, but also the people who brewed them and drank them, the places where these people lived and worked, the taverns and temples and tombs where they did their drinking, the stories they told about beer, their preferred styles of drinking, their brewing equipment and drinking paraphernalia, the gods and goddesses who governed their lives and who were also partial to a drink.Rigorous in its scholarship, yet staunchly unpretentious in style, this beer-centered travel guide for a trip back in time offers a clear roadmap into the ancient source material for those who are new to Mesopotamia. Paulette weaves together insights drawn from archaeological remai

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Book SynopsisThe complete story of the Wannsee Conference, the meeting that paved the way for the Holocaust.

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Book SynopsisVery Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), or Vatican II, is arguably the most significant event in the life of the Catholic Church since the Reformation. The Council initiated, intentionally or not, profound changes not simply within Catholic theology, but in the religious, social, and moral lives of the world''s billion Catholics. It also reconfigured, intellectually and practically, the Church''s engagements with those outside of it - most obviously with regard to other religions.The sixteen documents formally issued by Vatican II constitute some of the most influential writings of the whole twentieth century. Debates over their correct interpretation and authority are constant, but they remain an indispensable point-of-reference for all areas of Catholic life, from liturgy and sacraments, to the Church''s vast network of charitable and educational endeavours the world over.In this Very Short Introduction, Shaun Blanchard and Stephen Bullivant present the backstory to this event. Vatican II is explored in light of the wider history of the Catholic Church and placed in the tumultuous context of the 1960s. It distils the research on Vatican II, employing the first-hand accounts of participants and observers, and the official proceedings of the Council to paint a rich picture of one of the most important events of the last century.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade ReviewThis will be the case especially for non-Catholic readers rightly interested in the most influential event in the history of the Church since Trent. * Matthew Walther, The Lamp *The present book has the advantage of brevity: the authors manage to cover an impressive number of issues in ample depth in a mere 139 pages. Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals * Choice *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: Before the Council: roots of reform 2: The event of the Council: what happened at Vatican II? 3: Liturgy 4: Dei Verbum and divine revelation 5: Ecclesiology: the nature of the Church 6: Church and world 7: Conciliar 'hermeneutics': making sense of the debates over Vatican IIBibliographyFurther reading

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