Petroleum has always been used by humans: as an adhesive by Neanderthals, as a waterproofing agent in Noah's Ark and as a weapon during the Crusades. Its eventual extraction from the earth in vast quantities transformed light, heat and power. A Pipeline Runs Through It is a fresh, comprehensive in-depth look at the social, economic, political and geopolitical forces involved in our transition to the modern oil age. It tells an extraordinary origin story, from the pre-industrial history of pet...

'Beautifully written, and not just a welcome corrective but a book for our times. This is essential reading' Peter Frankopan

From the award-winning author of Empireland – the book that started a national conversation about how we talk about race and imperial history in Britain – a ground-breaking exploration of how British empire has shaped the world we live in today.

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Empireland examined imperialism's lasting impact on Britain. Empirew...

'A characteristically radical re-reading of history that places the social and political experiments of pirates at the heart of the European Enlightenment. A brilliant companion volume to the best-selling Dawn of Everything' Amitav Ghosh

The Enlightenment did not begin in Europe. Its true origins lie thousands of miles away on the island of Madagascar, in the late seventeenth century, when it was home to several thousand pirates. This was the Golden Age of Piracy, a period of violent buccanee...

The story of a family in modern China with a history of deceit, betrayal and political intrigue, and the communist party's long shadow over them, from the Cultural Revolution to today.

Following the lives of military intelligence officer Jie and his wife Moon, The Book of Secrets weaves recently found material into a narrative that not only illuminates the shadowy world of intelligence in China, but also the emotional tragedies that political extremism inflicted on those working within.

Drawi...

Cities are in a constant process of change and are the theater of interaction among people and their complex, historically multi-layered, culturally diverse living environment. Therefore, various interests, needs, and values affect these dynamics of interaction and urban change, which bring challenges and opportunities for the development of cities. Particularly, when urban development deals with such complex living environment and the management and conservation of both listed and non-listed...

A thrilling, epic and original history of humanity from a dazzlingly fresh and global perspective, from the prizewinning, bestselling historian Simon Sebag Montefiore.

Presents a controversial view of the origins of fascism, locating them in the eighteenth century with the advent of the Anti-Enlightenment, a far earlier date than most historians. This book contends that J G Herder, Edmund Burke, and Joseph de Maistre can be connected to the origins of the Anti-Enlightenment.

The great historian of twentieth- and twenty-first-century Russia returns with an enthralling revisionist history of the Russian Revolution.

Conversations w ith the most distinguished black thinkers of our times, includingToni Morrison, Claudia Rankine, W ole Soyinka and Michelle Obama, on race,decolonisation, systemic inequalities, and the climate crisis.

Nothing will come of nothing. Shakespeare placed these words into the mouth of old King Lear, but the saying actually dates back to well before the early seventeenth century, to the philosophers of ancient Greece. Though we mean it a little tongue in cheek, we believe this saying actually captures what goes on at a university very well. The source of everything is education and research, after all. The University of Antwerp is a relatively young, dynamic university. But every story has a back...