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...

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.

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.

A beautiful book overflowing with iconic images, charting the rise of the acclaimed actress and style icon Audrey Hepburn.

The acclaimed author of Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts introduces us to the extraordinary keepers and companions of medieval manuscripts over a thousand years of history

The illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages are among the greatest works of European art and literature. We are dazzled by them and recognize their crucial role in the transmission of knowledge. But we generally think much less about the countless men and women who made, collected and preserved them through the centu...

Indonesia declared its independence on 17 August 1945, two days after the Japanese capitulation that marked the end of World War II in Asia. Refusing to recognize Indonesian independence, the Netherlands attempted to gain control over the decolonization process by force, leading to four years of arduous negotiations and bitter warfare.

In 2005, the Dutch government declared that the Netherlands had been ‘on the wrong side of history’ and should not have engaged in this war. However, to th...

Hundreds of thousands of miles of paths reach into, and connect, communities across England and Wales. By 2026, 10,000 miles of undiscovered footpaths around Britain stand to be lost. Jack Cornish has dedicated the last five years of his life to walking these forgotten routes, and this book, The Lost Paths, is the result. It is Jack Cornish's hope that The Lost Paths will show just how special these forgotten rights of way are, and how embedded each path is in the history of Britain.

Footpath...

In the twenty-first century, terms such as globalization, global, and world function as key words at the cusp of new frontiers in both historical writing and literary criticism. Practitioners of these disciplines may appear to be long time intimate lovers when seen from pre and early modern time periods, only to divorce with the coming of Anglophone world history in the twenty-first century. In recent years, works such as Martin Puchner’s The Written World, Maya Jasanoff’s The Dawn Watch,...

A History of Suriname presents the first comprehensive overview in English to cover the distant past as well as current events in the former Dutch colony located on the Wild Coast of South America where Spanish and English adventurers once presumed El Dorado. This study concerns original Indigenous inhabitants, the arrival of enslaved Africans who toiled away on plantations, the colonial economy with its trade relations with both Europe and North America, the immigration of Asian indentured l...