The past is a foreign country - this is your guide, from the bestselling author of The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval EnglandWe think of Queen Elizabeth I's reign (1558-1603) as a golden age.

Cook led three famous expeditions to the Pacific Ocean between 1768 and 1779. In voyages that ranged from the Antarctic circle to the Arctic Sea, Cook charted Australia and the whole coast of New Zealand, and brought back descriptions of the natural history of the Pacific. This title tells the story of these voyages.

At the end of the Second World War, the Soviet Union unexpectedly found itself in control of a huge swathe of territory in Eastern Europe. Stalin and his secret police set out to convert a dozen radically different countries to a completely new political and moral system: Communism.

'A book of big questions, and big answers' Yuval Noah Harari, bestselling author of Sapiens Why has human history unfolded so differently across the globe?

What caused the Russian Revolution? Did it succeed or fail? Do we still live with its consequences? This book deals with these questions.