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...

Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, first published in 1866, is a collection of 24 of the most commonly held superstitions of the Medieval era. For each story, Baring-Gould presents his research into the history and possible inspiration for the myth. Included among these familiar tales are: The Wandering Jew, the story of the Jewish shoemaker who is doomed to wander the earth until the Second Coming. William Tell, the Swiss hero who shot an apple off his son’s head. Saint George, a Christian...

In 1741 a VOC ship from India arrives in the Netherlands, with a miraculous animal on board that no one in Europe has ever seen before: a young rhino named Clara. For no less than seventeen years she travelled with her owner Douwe Mout through almost every country in Europe. Wherever she is exhibited, she is a sensation; she grows into the most famous rhino in European history.

She is a star, a wonder for science and a muse for artists who immortalise her in paintings, drawings, sculptures an...

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

'This is bravura narrative history underpinned by passionate advocacy for the women whom medieval history has too often ignored or overlooked. Femina is essential reading' - Dan Jones, bestselling author of The Plantagenets and Powers and Thrones

'I am the fiery life of divine substance, I blaze above the beauty of the fields, I shine in the waters, I burn in sun, moon and stars' - Hildegard of Bingen (1098 - 1179)

The middle ages are seen as a bloodthirsty time of Vikings, saints and kings: ...

'Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past', George Orwell wrote in Nineteen Eighty-Four. In this glorious work of history, Orlando Figes argues that the maxim is truer for Russia than for any other country in the world.

The Story of Russia begins in the first millennium, when Russia's lands were first settled by the Slavs, and ends with Putin in the third. From Boris and Gleb, the first saints of the Russian Church, to the crowning of sixteen-yea...

From the author of &i>The Darkening Age&/i>,&i> Heresy &/i>is perfect for readers of Tom Holland, Karen Armstrong, Richard Ovenden, Mary Beard and Bettany Hughes&i>.&/i>

'Mak is the history teacher everyone should have had' Financial Times

How did the great European dream turn sour? And where do we go from here?

From the author of the internationally acclaimed In Europe, a stunning history of our present, examining the first two decades of this most fragile and fraught new millennium.

The great European project was built out of a common desire for peace, prosperity and freedom; a wish for a united Europe striving towards a common goal. The EU was to set an ex...

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.