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The definitive biography of the father and son who reshaped the ancient world. “Brings to life the full drama of ancient history.” —Wall Street Journal Alexander the Great's conquests staggered the world. He led his army across thousands of miles, overthrowing the greatest empires of his...

In The Cultural Tutor’s Grand Tour, the ephemera of the everyday opens up to reveal a world of high art and low cunning - where a love affair can trigger a World War, a lamp-post can birth a cathedral, and a cup of coffee can take you on a journey of a thousand years. In the 18th Century, young English gentlemen would embark on Grand Tours - educational journeys to foreign climes, absorbing the sights, sounds and stories that defined them. But we get it - you’re busy. These days, all you need to see the world is a pair of headphones.

In this thrilling road trip from "Peking to Paris", a woman tries to save her car, her marriage, and her confidence from breaking down. In May 2007, leaving China’s Great Wall is Car 84, one of 128 antique autos racing in the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge. It’s guided by one Dina Bennett, the world’s least likely navigator: a daydreamer prone to carsickness, riddled with self-doubt, and married to a thrill-seeking perfectionist who is half-human, half-racecar. What could possibly go wrong?

The ruins of Pompeii, buried by an explosion of Vesuvius in 79 CE, offer the best evidence we have of everyday life in the Roman empire. This remarkable book rises to the challenge of making sense of those remains, as well as exploding many myths: the very date of the eruption, probably a few months later than usually thought, or the hygiene of the baths that must have been hotbeds of germs, or the legendary number of brothels, most likely only one, or the massive death count, maybe less than 10 per cent of the population.

All of us have in our minds a cartoon image of what an autocratic state looks like, with a bad man at the top. But in the 21st century, that cartoon bears little resemblance to reality. Nowadays, autocracies are run not by one bad guy, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, security services and professional propagandists. The members of these networks are connected not only within a given country, but among many countries. The corrupt, state-controlled companies in one dictatorship do business with corrupt, state-controlled companies in another.

Brought to you by Penguin. 'Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic Socialism as I understand it'. Thus wrote Orwell following his experiences as a militiaman in the Spanish Civil War...

Eric Hobsbawm traces with brilliant anlytical clarity the transformation brought about in every sphere of European life by the Dual revolution - the 1789 French revolution and the Industrial Revolution that originated in Britain. This enthralling and original account highlights the significant 60 years when industrial capitalism established itself in Western Europe and when Europe established the domination over the rest of the world it was to hold for half a century.

This is the incredible story of the world's greatest conqueror, a man who single handedly changed the course of history...and who was worshipped as a god. There have been many attempts in the 2,300 years since Alexander's death to tell the epic story of this enigmatic soldier. His deeds read like the stuff of legends. Of all the chroniclers of Alexander, and there have been many famous ones, including Plutarch and Ptolemy, none have given us a clearer and truer account than the one by Arrian.

The rivalry between two of the dominant city states of Ancient Greece, Athens and Sparta, erupted into a war lasting nearly 30 years and was to have a dramatic effect on the balance of power in the area. Between 431 and 404 BCE, the two cities battled it out on land and sea, aided by their...

Charming, vibrant, witty and edifying, The Life of Samuel Johnson is a work of great obsession and boundless reverence. The literary critic Samuel Johnson was 54 when he first encountered Boswell; the friendship that developed spawned one of the greatest biographies in the history of world literature. The book is full of humorous anecdote and rich characterization, and paints a vivid picture of 18th-century London, peopled by prominent personalities of the time.

Using archival records, in this book, David Stahel presents a history of Germany's summer campaign from the perspective of the two largest and most powerful Panzer groups on the Eastern front. Stahel's research provides a fundamental reassessment of Germany's war against the Soviet Union, highlighting the prodigious internal problems of the vital Panzer forces and revealing that their demise in the earliest phase of the war undermined the whole German invasion. 

Some people worry that they don't appreciate poetry; but English poetry wasn't written to be appreciated it was written to be enjoyed. For six centuries people have been reading poetry for enjoyment - for fun, for romance, for religion and for entertainment - and this is a book about those...

The first sign was almost always a face. A peat cutter, working a bank he had worked countless times before, drove his spade into the dark earth and found himself looking at a cheek, a closed eye, or the stubble on a jaw. The skin was brown and the features strangely calm, and what was uncovered...

The first modern biography of Aristotle―student of Plato, tutor to Alexander, and architect of ideas still studied around the world Aristotle stands among the most brilliant and influential figures in history, the inventor of almost every subject studied in universities today, from biology to...

This extraordinary history of the French far right, from its modern origins in the 1890s to its ebb and flow throughout the twentieth century, could not come at a timelier junction in European politics, when the hard right once again threatens to topple the pillars of democracy that have...

'I'd love to speak more Irish.' Does this sound familiar? Maybe you've lost the language over the years or perhaps you're eager to reconnect with your roots, but you don't know where to begin. Níl tú i d'aonar - you're not alone. Irish is experiencing an exciting revitalisation, and it's...

From a master historian and the critically acclaimed author of Lenin, comes a dramatic and gripping account of the political and cultural upheavals that lead to the death of democracy in Weimar era Germany—a story ripped out of today’s headlines. In this masterful work of history, Victor...

KNOW ODIN. KNOW THOR. KNOW FREYJA. NO HOLLYWOOD. Told from the point-of-view of the old Norse Gods themselves....embark on an enchanting 10-day journey into the heart of Norse mythology, where the ancient gods, mythical realms, and legendary tales spring to life! From the cosmic creation myths...

Thoroughly updated and revised for 2024, JERUSALEM: THE BIOGRAPHY is the history of the Middle East through the lens of the Holy City and the Holy Land, from King David to the wars and chaos of today. The history of Jerusalem is the story of the world: Jerusalem is the universal city, the...

 The Cheese and the Worms is an incisive study of popular culture in the 16th century as seen through the eyes of one man, the miller known as Menocchio, who was accused of heresy during the Inquisition and sentenced to death. Carlo Ginzburg uses the trial records to illustrate the religious and social conflicts of the society in which Menocchio lived.