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The creator of the hit podcast series Tides of History and Fall of Rome explores the four explosive decades between 1490 and 1530, bringing to life the dramatic and deeply human story of how the West was reborn. In the bestselling tradition of The Swerve and A Distant Mirror, The Verge tells the...

Raised in 1943 with 17-year-olds from the Hitler Youth movement, and following the twin disasters of Stalingrad and "Tunisgrad", the Hitlerjugend Panzer Division emerged as the most effective German division fighting in the West. The core of the division was a cadre of offices and NCOs provided by Hitler's bodyguard division, the elite Leibstandarte, with the aim of producing a division of "equal value" to fight alongside them in I SS Panzer Corps.

The Austro-Hungarian army that marched east and south to confront the Russians and Serbs in the opening campaigns of World War I had a glorious past but a pitiful present. Speaking a mystifying array of languages and lugging outdated weapons, the Austrian troops were hopelessly unprepared for the industrialized warfare that would shortly consume Europe.

London in April, 1940, was a place of great fear and conflict. Everyone was on edge; civilization itself seemed imperiled. The Germans are marching. They have taken Poland, France, Holland, Belgium, and Czechoslovakia. They now menace Britain. Should Britain negotiate with Germany? The members of the War Cabinet bicker, yell, lose their control, and are divided. Churchill, leading the faction to fight, and Lord Halifax, cautioning that prudence is the way to survive, attempt to usurp one another by any means possible.

The best-selling author of The Liberator brings to life the incredible true story of an American doctor in Paris, and his heroic espionage efforts during World War II. The leafy Avenue Foch, one of the most exclusive residential streets in Nazi-occupied France, was Paris's hotbed of daring spies...

Historica Isabel Casteels las duizenden beschrijvingen van terechtstellingen, geschreven door de aanwezigen zelf, en laat voor het eerst zien wat mensen er écht van vonden. In tegenstelling tot wat we denken, zag het publiek een executie niet als vermaak, maar als een serieuze en belangrijke zaak. Met een kritisch oog keek het volk naar wat zich op het schavot afspeelde. Het publiek was geen bloeddorstige menigte, maar vervuld van compassie met de veroordeelde.

De la bulle avortée de 1365 à la fondation calvinienne de 1559, ce livre audio retrace la naissance puis l’essor de l’Université de Genève comme matrice d’une cité lettrée et d’une Europe réformée, entre ambitions savoyardes, résistances épiscopales et volontarisme communal. On y voit Calvin et Théodore de Bèze transformer une “grande eschole” en un système complet, du Collège aux “lectures publiques”, réglé par des statuts exigeants, un calendrier d’études progressif et un recrutement international.

Die Historikerin Anna Maria Sigmund zeichnet in ihrem Bestseller acht eindringliche Porträts von Frauen in herausragender gesellschaftlicher Position des NS-Terrorregimes, darunter Emmy Göring, Magda Goebbels, Eva Braun und Leni Riefenstahl. Diese Neuausgabe überrascht mit zahlreichen neuen Erkenntnissen aus lange verschlossenen Archiven und neu aufgefundenen Quellen.

In the wake of the American and French Revolutions, thousands of men and women took to the roads and waterways on both sides of the Atlantic—refugees in search of their inalienable rights. Although larger nations fortified their borders and circumscribed citizenship, two port cities, German Hamburg and Danish Altona, opened their doors, as did the federated Swiss cantons and the newly independent Belgian monarchy. The refugees thrived and the societies that harbored them prospered.

At the end of the fifteenth century, Burgundy was extinguished as an independent state. It had been a fabulously wealthy, turbulent region situated between France and Germany, with close links to the English kingdom. Torn apart by the dynastic struggles of early modern Europe, this extraordinary realm vanished from the map. But it became the cradle of what we now know as the Low Countries, modern Belgium and the Netherlands. This is the story of a thousand years, a must-listen narrative history of ambitious aristocrats, family dysfunction, treachery, savage battles, luxury, and madness.

Soldier Keith Nightingale has conducted terrain walks in Normandy for over forty years with veterans, active-duty military, and local French civilians. Over the decades Nightingale conducted dozens of formal interviews and informal conversations with many of the principals of the day, including Generals Bradley, Collins, Gavin, Ridgway, and Hill. Added to this rare new primary material from the top brass are numerous conversations with lower-ranking vets who did the heavy lifting.

The Age of Atlantic Revolution was a defining moment in western history. Our understanding of rights, of what makes the individual an individual, of how to define a citizen versus a subject, of what states should or should not do, of how labor, politics, and trade would be organized, of the relationship between the church and the state, and of our attachment to the nation all derive from this period (c. 1750-1850).

How much can change in less than two and a half years? In the case of Britain in the Sixties, the answer is: almost everything. From the seismic coming of the Beatles to a sex scandal that rocked the Tory government to the arrival at No 10 of Harold Wilson, a prime minister utterly different from his Old Etonian predecessors. A Northern Wind, the keenly anticipated next instalment of David Kynaston’s acclaimed Tales of a New Jerusalem series, brings to vivid life the period between October 1962 and February 1965.

Een vlaag van natte hond wurmt zich door dikke blauwe wierookwolken in de Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk. De penetrante geur van lijken in ontbinding vermengt zich met de parfumwalm van opgetutte kooplui. Aan een van de tientallen zijaltaren rinkelt voor de honderdste keer een bel. Orgelspel en klokkengelui overstemmen de kreet van een marktkramer bij het portaal. In het schemerduister, langs monumentale schilderijen en fluwelen gordijnen, turen heiligen naar de wirwar van kerkgangers.

Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) was zonder twijfel één van de merkwaardigste figuren van de Nederlandse geschiedenis. Kuyper richtte zijn eigen dagblad, partij, universiteit en kerk op, de instrumenten waarmee hij de strijd aanbond tegen ‘de revolutie’, tegen liberalisme, socialisme, evolutieleer, Tachtigerpoëzie, Multatuli, enzovoorts. Terwijl hij voor zijn gereformeerde achterban een nieuwe Mozes leek, was hij voor menig ander een dagelijkse steen des aanstoots. Maar wat men ook van hem vond, feit is dat de invloed van deze ‘geroepene’ op de Nederlandse samenleving aanzienlijk was.

The Anglo-Saxon period, stretching from the fifth to the late eleventh century, begins with the Roman retreat from the Western world and ends with the Norman takeover of England. Between these epochal events, many of the contours and patterns of English life that would endure for the next millennium were shaped. In this authoritative work, N. J. Higham and M. J. Ryan reexamine Anglo-Saxon England in the light of new research in disciplines as wide ranging as historical genetics, paleobotany, archaeology, literary studies, art history, and numismatics.

Belgique, le 15 janvier 2015. À Verviers, les hommes des Unités spéciales partent à l'assaut d'une maison ouvrière dans laquelle trois terroristes préparent un attentat. La fusillade qui s'ensuit intervient une semaine après l'attentat meurtrier de Charlie Hebdo ; elle présage la vague de terreur qui va frapper la Belgique et la France. En première ligne, l'inspecteur principal Lionel D. de l'Escadron spécial d'intervention (ESI). Pour la première fois, un membre de cette unité d'élite de la police fédérale belge se livre à coeur ouvert sur sa vie et sur son travail.

The tenth century dawned in violence and disorder. Charlemagne’s empire was in ruins, most of Spain had been claimed by Moorish invaders, and even the papacy in Rome was embroiled in petty, provincial conflicts. To many historians, it was a prime example of the ignorance and uncertainty of the Dark Ages. Yet according to historian Paul Collins, the story of the tenth century is the story of our culture’s birth, of the emergence of our civilization into the light of day.

On Christmas Eve 1914, a group of German soldiers laid down their arms, lit lanterns, and started to sing Christmas carols. The British troops in nearby trenches responded by singing songs of their own. The next day, men from both sides met in No Man's Land. They shook hands, took photos, and exchanged food and souvenirs. Some even played improvised football games, kicking around empty bully-beef cans and using helmets for goalposts. Both sides also saw the lull in fighting as a chance to bury the bodies of their comrades.

In the great wars of modern history, maritime powers have always prevailed over land-based empires, whether Habsburg, Napoleonic, Nazi, or Soviet. In contrast to the rigid hierarchies and centralization of land-based empires, those nations attaining mastery at sea have been distinguished by liberty, flexibility, and enterprise. The 17th-century Dutch were the first to achieve naval and trading dominance.