Showing titles in 20th Century

As relevant today as it was when it was first published, Man’s Search for Meaning is a book for finding strength and purpose in times of great despair. “This is a book I reread a lot … it gives me hope … it gives me a sense of strength.”—Anderson Cooper, Anderson Cooper 360/CNN...

A history of modern South Asia told through five partitions that reshaped it. As recently as 1928, a vast swathe of Asia--India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait--were bound together under a single imperial banner, an entity known...

'Ramachandra Guha's Gandhi is a questioner, seeker and debater-and still worth arguing with.' - The Print 'Explores the enduring relevance of Mahatma Gandhi's ideas in the modern world.' - The Hindu 'The book also traces how Gandhi's ideas travelled beyond India, influencing civil rights and...

Brought to you by Penguin. The dramatic untold story of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster, based on original reporting and new archival research. Early in the morning of April 26, 1986, Reactor Number Four of the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station exploded, triggering history’s worst...

Finally, here is a history of democratic India that is every bit as sweeping as the country itself … [A] magisterial work’ Financial Times ‘Guha has given democratic India the rich, well-paced history it deserves’ Washington Post ‘An insightful, spirited and elegantly crafted account...

In this explosive book, best-selling author Shashi Tharoor reveals with acuity, impeccable research, and trademark wit, just how disastrous British rule was for India. Besides examining the many ways in which the colonizers exploited India, he demolishes the arguments of Western and Indian apologists for Empire on the supposed benefits of British rule.

As Germany and then Japan surrendered in 1945, there was a tremendous hope that a new and much better world could be created from the moral and physical ruins of the conflict. Instead, the combination of the huge power of the USA and USSR and the near-total collapse of most of their rivals created a unique, grim new environment: the Cold War. For over 40 years the demands of the Cold War shaped the life of almost all of us. There was no part of the world where East and West did not ultimately demand a blind and absolute allegiance.

How did communism become such a pervasive economic and political philosophy? Why did it first take root in early 20th-century Russia? These and other questions are part of a fascinating story whose drama has few equals in terms of sheer scale, scope, or human suffering and belief. These 12 lectures invite you to go inside communism’s journey from a collection of political and economic theories to a revolutionary movement that rocked the world.

Once described by Mao Zedong as a "needle inside a ball of cotton", Deng was the pragmatic yet disciplined driving force behind China's radical transformation in the late 20th century. He confronted the damage wrought by the Cultural Revolution, dissolved Mao's cult of personality, and loosened the policies that had stunted China's growth. Obsessed with modernization, Deng opened trade relations with the West, which lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty. Yet he also answered to his authoritarian roots, most notably when he ordered the crackdown in 1989 at Tiananmen Square.

The history of India's struggle for freedom is usually told from the perspective of the non-violent movement. Yet, the story of armed resistance to colonial occupation is just as important. Names such as Vinayak Savarkar, Aurobindo Ghosh, Rashbehari Bose, Bagha Jatin, Sachindra Nath Sanyal...

P. V. Narasimha Rao (or PV, as he was popularly known) has been widely praised for enabling the economic reforms that transformed the country in 1991. From the vantage point of his long personal and professional association with the former prime minister, best-selling author Sanjaya Baru shows how PV's impact on the nation's fortunes went way beyond the economy.

'A great accomplishment . . . A wonderful reflection of an extraordinary sweep of history' Barack Obama Timely, intimate and important, the long-awaited memoirs from one of the most influential leaders of our times For 16 years, Angela Merkel was Chancellor of Germany. She led the country...

BEN MACINTYRE'S NEXT AUDIOBOOK, REDWOOD, IS AVAILABLE TO BUY NOW THE NO.1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER An exciting Cold War story about a KGB double agent, by one of Britain's greatest historians and the ultimate gift for anyone who loves a good spy thriller! On a warm July evening in 1985, a...

Brought to you by Penguin. THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NEW STATESMAN, ATLANTIC AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BOOK OF THE YEAR A spellbinding narrative history of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and its devastating consequences by the Sunday Times bestselling author of Lawrence in Arabia. Before the...

J. Robert Oppenheimer was one of the iconic figures of the 20th century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb but later confronted the moral consequences of scientific progress. When he proposed international controls over atomic materials, opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb, and criticized plans for a nuclear war, his ideas were anathema to powerful advocates of a massive nuclear buildup during the anti-Communist hysteria of the early 1950s.

Brought to you by Penguin. The Achilles Trap masterfully untangles the people, ploys of power and geopolitics that led to America's disastrous war with Iraq and, for the first time, details America's fundamental miscalculations during its ruinous, decades-long relationship with Saddam Hussein...

Narrated by 2026 Audio Publishers Association Hall of Fame inductee George Guidall! A new translation from the French by Marion Wiesel. Night is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER From the multi-million copy bestselling historian, the remarkable, unknown Cold War story of how one spy saved the world from nuclear war The year is 1981. Tehran is in violent turmoil in the wake of the Iranian Revolution. The Soviets are planning to overthrow the...

Bloomsbury presents A Spy Among Friends written and read by Ben Macintyre. THE SUNDAY TIMES No. 1 BESTSELLER WITH AN AFTERWORD BY JOHN LE CARRÉ 'Riveting, astounding . . . An unputdownable postwar thriller' Observer 'Irresistibly readable' Sunday Times 'Worthy of John le Carré at his best'...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Choice by Edith Eger, read by Tovah Feldshuh with an introduction by the author. The extraordinary true story of survival, hope and empowerment from a Holocaust survivor. THE AWARD-WINNING INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER Even in hell, hope can flower. In...