East Africa History

In captivating detail, Stevenson provides a fast-paced, hour-by-hour narration from the hijacking of Air France Flight 139 to the final 90-minute mission. In addition to discussing the incredible rescue itself, Stevenson also covers the political backdrop behind the hijacking, especially Ugandan President Idi Amin's support for the hijackers, which marked one of the first times a leader of a nation had backed terrorist activities.

War-game simulation specialists James F. Dunnigan and Austin Bay have revised their highly regarded analyses, bringing up to date not only the many conventional conflicts around the world today but the new battlegrounds that have emerged since the previous edition was published more than a decade ago - the Global War on Terror, counterinsurgency struggles around the world and the latest frontier of modern combat: cyber war.

In 1898, the British were building a railway line between Mombasa in Kenya and Uganda. At the Tsavo River in Kenya where a bridge needed to be built, the project was suddenly interrupted by two man-eating lions that targeted the camps of the workers. Over a period of nine months, the lions killed scores of people. These lions were deliberately hunting people, preferring humans over any other prey, and they seemed to have supernatural abilities in evading all attempts to stop them. Colonel J.H. Patterson, the chief engineer in charge of the project, finally managed to eliminate them.

Brought to you by Penguin. From its birth in seventh-century Arabia, Islam has been a faith on the move. In Worlds of Islam, James McDougall explores its origins and transformations from Late Antiquity to the digital age. Over the span of a thousand years, armies, missionaries, and merchants...

In just over a hundred years - from the death of Muhammad in 632 to the beginning of the Abbasid Caliphate in 750 - the followers of the Prophet swept across the whole of the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain. Their armies threatened states as far flung as the Franks in Western Europe and the Tang Empire in China. The conquered territory was larger than the Roman Empire at its greatest expansion, and it was claimed for the Arabs in roughly half the time.

Renowned Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson leads us through space as much as time: From the river's mystical sources (the Blue Nile which rises in Ethiopia, and the White Nile coursing from majestic Lake Victoria); to Thebes, with its Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, and Luxor Temple; the fertile Delta; Giza, home of the Great Pyramid, the sole surviving Wonder of the Ancient World; and finally, to the pulsating capital city of Cairo, where the Arab Spring erupted on the bridges over the Nile.

This is the story of three terrible famines. The first is an Gorta Mór, the great hunger of Ireland, which began in 1846. The second is the deadly famine that struck Bengal in 1943. The third is the Ethiopian famine, which first sprung up in lethal form in the 1970s under Emperor Haile Selassie and then reappeared under the brutal dictator Mengistu in the 1980s.

An engaging collection of travel essays by the author of The Sheltering Sky Their Heads are Green, Their Hands are Blue deals largely with places in the world that few Westerners have ever heard of, much less seen—places as yet unencumbered by the trappings, luxuries, and corruptions of modern...

“Jenkins is one of America’s top religious scholars.” —Forbes magazine The Lost History of Christianity by Philip Jenkins offers a revolutionary view of the history of the Christian church. Subtitled “The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia—and...

Brought to you by Penguin. **SHORTLISTED FOR 2025 THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION** A startling exploration of slavery in the Islamic world from the 7th century to the present Slavery in the Islamic world has a long, diverse and controversial history. Captives and Companions is a...

'Your world will be larger for reading this book' CHLOE DALTON author of Raising Hare 'The most persistent feeling, and one that Martins conveys beautifully, is one of awe at the sheer diversity and inventiveness of the living world' GUARDIAN Welcome to the hidden, squirming world of parasites...

In a vastly innovative novel, Nobel Prize winner V. S. Naipaul intertwines memory and history to create what is at once an autobiography and an ambitious fictional archaeology of colonialism. Spanning continents and centuries and defying literary categories, A Way in the World tells intersecting...

The maritime spice trade didn't just build empires; it forged the dramatic African history of the Swahili Coast. Perfect for your daily commute, this immersive historical journey transports you to the bustling ports and clove plantations of a vibrant archipelago. Feel the shifting tides of power...

Discover how a swampy colonial outpost transformed into a dynamic urban powerhouse driving East African history. This immersive historical biography tracks a restless metropolis built along the tracks of the Uganda Railway, tracing its explosive growth through decades of political struggle and...

Uncover the rise and tragic erasure of a lost African civilization in this sweeping maritime history of ancient empires. Perfect for a long commute or an evening of deep-focus learning, this immersive journey transports you to the bustling shores of the Indian Ocean. Experience the awe-inspiring...

Brought to you by Penguin. Thomas Asbridge’s remarkable new book reveals the global impact of humanity’s greatest natural disaster, and the terrible human cost of this calamity. In the mid-fourteenth century, a lethal plague struck the medieval world, causing unimaginable suffering and...

In the first in-depth history of the Obama family, Peter Firstbrook recounts a journey that starts in a mud hut by the White Nile and ends seven centuries later in the White House. Interweaving oral history and tribal lore, interviews with Obama family members and other Kenyans, the writings of...

WINNER OF THE 2026 TRILLIUM BOOK AWARD FINALIST FOR THE 2025 ATWOOD GIBSON WRITERS’ TRUST FICTION PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE 2025 GILLER PRIZE Globe and Mail’s Best Books of 2025 CBC’s Best Canadian Fiction of 2025 “There is so much care in the way Bitek alchemizes living...

Uncover the epic African history of global trade, maritime empires, and cultural resilience along the Indian Ocean. Perfect for your daily commute, this immersive journey transforms humble fishing villages into a powerful chain of cosmopolitan city-states. Listen and travel across centuries to...

Discover the epic African history of a makeshift imperial camp that transformed into a thriving diplomatic powerhouse. Perfect for your daily commute, this immersive narrative chronicles how Empress Taytu’s vision on the Ethiopian highlands birthed a continental crossroads. Experience the...