The many preserved collections of student notes from the early modern period – ranging from neatly maintained notebooks to barely legible scribbles crammed between lines of printed text – hold considerable but largely untapped potential as an historical source. At the same time, the analysis of these notes poses significant challenges for scholars. This book aims to be a concise and accessible companion for scholars interested in engaging with this young and burgeoning research field. Wri...

Heinrich Schliemann, a successful trader and amateur archaeologist who excavated Troy and Mycenae, kept multilingual diaries during his many travels around the world. In 1864, he set aside his trading business and embarked upon a year-long trip around the globe. This volume contains the portion of this trip in China and Japan, from April 1st to June 30th, 1865. Schliemann’s visit came at a curious time, when both China and Japan were going through tectonic shifts, very recently begun to ope...

Heinrich Schliemann, a successful trader and amateur archaeologist who excavated Troy and Mycenae, kept multilingual diaries during his many travels around the world. In 1864, he set aside his trading business and embarked upon a year-long trip around the globe. This volume contains the portion of this trip in China and Japan, from April 1st to June 30th, 1865. Schliemann’s visit came at a curious time, when both China and Japan were going through tectonic shifts, very recently begun to ope...

In the summer of 1941, the German attack on the Soviet Union, code-named Operation Barbarossa, began with a surprise attack. Huge armies mobilised for the largest campaign ever.

Stalin’s armies were positioned very west of the German army, which offered the opportunity to encircle them. This could have decided the war at an early stage.

The army group north (Heeresgruppe Nord) also had to attack quickly in depth and destroy the Red Army before the river Düna. It would turn out differently....

In this comprehensive guide to the most widespread conflict in contemporary history, Vladislav Zubok traces the origins of the Cold War in post-war Europe, through the tumultuous decades of confrontation, to the fall of the Berlin Wall and beyond.

A major new history of Saudi Arabia, from its eighteenth-century origins to the present day

A human history of one of the planet’s most iconic lakes, and the civilizations that surrounded its shores