A TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR ‘A diligent historian and a superb writer’ THE TIMES A gripping new history of the making of England as a nation.

The Sunday Times BestsellerA new assessment of the West's colonial recordIn the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet empire in 1989, many believed that we had arrived at the 'End of History' - that the global dominance of liberal democracy had been secured forever.

The first full, interpretive synthesis for a generation on the rise of the Mediterranean world from its very beginnings up to the threshold of Classical times - winner of the Wolfson History Prize. The Mediterranean has been for millennia one of the global cockpits of human endeavour. World-class interpretations exist of its Classical and subsequent history, but there has been remarkably little holistic exploration of how its societies, culture and economies first came into being, despite the...

Alfred Russel Wallace, Henry Walter Bates and Richard Spruce were English naturalists who went to Amazonia 150 years ago. This book combines all three young mens experiences of the Amazon, drawing heavily on their own letters and books.

Nearly forty thrilling, first-hand accounts by men and women who are the modern heirs of the great explorers of previous ages.

The bizarre and little known story of how a hubristicArchduke became the puppet Emperor of Mexico -with tragic results and pivotal historical consequencesfor Europe and America.