History

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  • Talking Classics

    £16.99

    Mary Beard points to the surprising connections between antiquity and the present. From revolutionaries to dictators, Bob Dylan to Beyoncé, she joins forces with the varied modern characters who have been transfixed by the ancient world. It’s not compulsory, she argues, to be excited by antiquity, but it’s a shame not to be. After half a century teaching and studying classics, she fills the book with lively stories, curious facts and some good gossip. This book explains why the deep past does really affect us all.

  • Queen Elizabeth II

    £28.00

    Queen Elizabeth II occupies a unique place in the hearts of her people. She was elegant, self-contained, and enigmatic. After a supremely happy childhood, gravitas descended with the death of her beloved grandfather and after the Abdication she accepted her destiny. When she was 21 in 1947, she made a promise to serve and kept it for a remarkable 75 years. She was steadfast and conciliatory and presided calmly over decades of change, political upheaval and family tragedy. Tommy Lascelles described her as ‘the most remarkable woman’ he had ever met. This biography is based on sixty years of close observation and research, and uses never-before-seen sources and personal recollections to illuminate her life as never before.

  • Conquer We Must

    £14.99

    The First and Second World Wars were separated by a mere two decades, making the period 1914-1945 an unprecedentedly intense and violent era of history. But how did Britain develop its complex military strategy during these wars, and how were decisions made by those at the top? Robin Prior examines the influence politicians had on military operations, in the first history to assess both world wars together. Drawing uniquely on both military and political archives and previously unexamined sources Prior explores the fraught relationships between civilian and military leaders: from Lloyd George’s remarkably interventionist stance on military tactics during the First World War to Churchill’s near-constant arguments with American leaders during the Second.

  • Radicals

    £25.00

    The political Left in Britain rose out of the Industrial Revolution, as the working classes emerged as the leading force in the call for social change. Their contributions extended widely to political representation, the birth of the Labour Party and women’s suffrage, the autodidact tradition in adult education, and Britain’s literary culture. Throughout subsequent decades, the working classes remained central to the British radical tradition. Geoff Andrews traces the history of the Left and the Labour Party through the ideas of leading thinkers, writers, educationalists, trade unionists, and politicians. Ranging from the Workers Educational Association to the General Strike and the Women’s Liberation Movement, Andrews uncovers the voices of key figures.

  • How to Kill a Witch

    £10.99

    As a woman, if you lived in Scotland in the 1500s, there was a very good chance that you, or someone you knew, would be tried as a witch. Witch hunts ripped through the country for over 150 years, with at least 4000 accused, and with many women’s fates sealed by a grizzly execution of strangulation, followed by burning. Inspired to correct this historic injustice, campaigners and writers Claire Mitchell, KC, and Zoe Venditozzi, have delved deeply into just why the trials exploded in Scotland to such a degree. In order to understand why it happened, they have broken down the entire horrifying process, step-by-step, from identification of individuals, to their accusation, ‘pricking’, torture, confessions, execution and beyond.

  • Nuremberg

    £10.99

    The compelling story of the only German-Jewish translator to work with the psychiatrists in Nuremberg prison

  • The French Revolution

    £12.99

    In 1786, France’s ancien régime was functioning as usual. Its alliance with the victorious American colonies had restored its diplomatic prestige, the economy seemed to be flourishing, and internal politics seemed quiet. But just a few short years later, the dynasty which had ruled France for over 800 years was swept away. What happened to cause such devastating change to the long-established political structure? John Hardman traces the political history of the French Revolution, from its origins to its aftermath. Hardman argues that the nature of ancien régime politics, the mismanagement of the fiscal crisis, and a new generation of young, overly confident politicians brought the Bourbon monarchy’s apparatus crashing down.

  • No More Napoleons

    £12.99

    Lambert argues for a dynamic new understanding of the 19th century, showing how British policymakers shaped a stable European system that it could balance from offshore. Through judicious deployment of naval power against continental forces, and the defence strategy of statesmen such as the Duke of Wellington, Britain ensured that no single European state could rise to pose a threat, rebuilt its economy, and established naval and trade dominance across the globe. This is the remarkable story of how Britain kept a whole continent in check – until the final collapse of this delicately balanced order at the outset of World War One.

  • Nuclear Weapons

    £30.00

    How should we deal with nuclear weapons? The discovery of nuclear fission fundamentally changed the world order. Its power was harnessed, nuclear bombs invented, and the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed. In recurring international crises and calls for arms control, the threat of nuclear war has hung over humanity ever since. David Holloway traces how these weapons shaped the last century, from the US-Soviet arms race to the rivalry between India and Pakistan. Deterrence and intimidation, alliances and war plans, international treaties and organizations have all played their role. At the centre were political leaders – among them Truman, Kennedy, and Reagan, as well as Stalin, Khrushchev, and Gorbachev – who all had their fingers on the nuclear button.

  • Prosecuting the Powerful

    £12.99

    Could we ever see Vladimir Putin in the dock for his crimes? What about a Western ally like Benjamin Netanyahu? Putting a country’s leader on trial once seemed unimaginable. But as Steve Crawshaw describes in ‘Prosecuting the Powerful’ – a blend of powerful eyewitness reporting and gripping history – the possibilities of justice have been transformed. Crawshaw includes recent stories from the front lines of justice in Ukraine, Israel/Palestine and at The Hague, as well as his earlier encounters with war criminals like Slobodan Milosevic.

  • A Spy Amongst Us

    £25.00

    The true story of Daniel Defoe and the dirty tricks which helped bring Scotland into union with England. In 1706, Edinburgh was on the brink of a popular uprising. Men and women took to the streets to protest the planned union with England, fearing the end of Scottish sovereignty. But unbeknownst to the mob, a spy was in their midst – the English writer Daniel Defoe, now bankrupt and thrice pilloried, had turned a government agent. Marc Mierowsky tells the dramatic story of Defoe and his fellow spies as they sabotaged the Scottish independence movement from the inside. Together they disseminated propaganda and built a network of operatives from London to the upper Highlands, providing the English government with up-to-the-minute intelligence and monitoring its adversaries’ every move.

  • The Hitler Years

    £35.00

    The Hitler Years: Holocaust 1933 to 1945 provides a year-by-year narrative, fully illustrated, of the road Adolf Hitler mapped out to achieve his dream – the destruction of the European Jewish population.