European Empire

The fighting that raged in the East during the First World War was every bit as fierce as that on the Western Front, but the titanic clashes between three towering empires - Russia, Austro-Hungary, and Germany - remains a comparatively unknown facet of the Great War. With the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the war in 2014, Collision of Empires is a timely expose of the bitter fighting on this forgotten front - a clash that would ultimately change the face of Europe forever.

Penguin presents the unabridged audiobook edition of Empire by Niall Ferguson, read by Jonathan Keeble. Once vast swathes of the globe were coloured imperial red and Britannia ruled not just the waves, but the prairies of America, the plains of Asia, the jungles of Africa and the deserts of...

Brought to you by Penguin. Once vast swathes of the globe were coloured imperial red and Britannia ruled not just the waves, but the prairies of America, the plains of Asia, the jungles of Africa and the deserts of Arabia. Just how did a small, rainy island in the North Atlantic achieve all this?...

Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2026 THE EXPLOSIVE INSIDE STORY OF THE MOST DARING ACT OF SABOTAGE IN MODERN HISTORY In September 2022, Scandinavian seismologists detected what seemed to be a huge undersea earthquake or volcanic eruption. These signals were caused by...

On the eve of a landmark general election, Ruchir Sharma offers an unrivalled portrait of how India and its democracy work, drawn from his two decades on the road chasing election campaigns across every major state, travelling the equivalent of a lap around the earth. Democracy on the Road takes...

India’s Five-Year Plans were one of the developing world’s most ambitious experiments. After nearly two centuries of colonial rule, planning the economy was meant to be independent India’s route from poverty to prosperity. Planning Democracy explores how India married liberal democracy to...

The Romanovs were the most successful dynasty of modern times, ruling a sixth of the world's surface. How did one family turn a war-ruined principality into the world's greatest empire? And how did they lose it all? This is the intimate story of twenty tsars and tsarinas, some touched by genius...

Brought to you by Penguin. A new history of the idea of Europe from Ancient Greece to the present What do we talk about when we talk about Europe? Is it defined by geography? Or is it politics, or shared culture? In Europe, award-winning historian Roderick Beaton tells the story of Europe as...

Brought to you by Penguin. In The Habsburgs, Martyn Rady tells the epic story of a dynasty and the world it built - and then lost - over nearly a millennium. From modest origins, the Habsburgs grew in power to gain control of the Holy Roman Empire in the fifteenth century. Then, in just a few...

In 1683, an Ottoman army that stretched from horizon to horizon set out to seize the "Golden Apple," as Turks referred to Vienna. The ensuing siege pitted battle-hardened Janissaries wielding seventeenth-century grenades against Habsburg armies, widely feared for their savagery. The walls of...

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize One of the Best Books of the Year: The New York Times From the editor of The New Yorker: a riveting account of the collapse of the Soviet Union, which has become the standard book on the subject. Lenin’s Tomb combines the global vision of the best historical...

Witness the epic military history of a rising Asian power crushing a European giant in a gripping clash of empires. Perfect for your daily commute, this tense and immersive narrative transports you to the brutal battlefields of 1904. Experience the geopolitical earthquake that forever shattered...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Were World Wars I and II inevitable? Were they necessary wars? Or were they products of calamitous failures of judgment? In this monumental and provocative history, Patrick Buchanan makes the case that, if not for the blunders of British statesmen—Winston...

Brought to you by Penguin. Central Europe is not just a space on a map but also a region of shared experience - of mutual borrowings, impositions and misapprehensions. From the Roman Empire onwards, it has been the target of invasion from the east. In the Middle Ages, Central Europeans cast...

'Terrific ... this is serious but popular history writing at its best' - Spectator The dynamic, expansionist dynasty that forged the Middle Ages. Today, the Carolingians are best known as the dynasty of Charlemagne. In a few remarkable decades spanning the late eighth and early ninth centuries...

Experience epic European history and military conquest as a remote, freezing wilderness becomes a feared global empire. Perfect for your daily commute, this sweeping historical narrative charts a dramatic rise from isolated tribal chieftains to warrior monarchs dominating the Baltic shores...

Discover the epic rise and dramatic fall of an ancient empire that forged the foundations of modern western politics. Whether you need a thought-provoking companion for your daily commute or a captivating history for deep focus, this sweeping journey delivers. Step into a world of civil war and...

What accounts for the rise of the state, the creation of the first global system, and the dominance of the West? The conventional answer asserts that superior technology, tactics, and institutions forged by Darwinian military competition gave Europeans a decisive advantage in war from 1500 onward. Empires of the Weak argues that Europeans had no general military superiority in the early modern era. Sharman shows instead that European expansion is better explained by deference to strong Asian and African polities, disease in the Americas, and maritime supremacy earned by default.

The definitive history of the self-destruction of the autocratic Romanov dynasty. “Filled with revelations and fresh insights and rich with observations.” —The Wall Street Journal In 1917, Imperial Russia faced a series of overlapping crises, from war to social unrest, that culminated in...

How the demise of the Habsburg Empire, postwar sovereignty, and new diplomatic frontiers shaped the nature of citizenship, identity, and belonging across Europe.