Most people can name the influential leaders and major battles of the past. Few can name the most destructive storms, the worst winters, the most devastating droughts.

In The Earth Transformed, ground-breaking historian Peter Frankopan shows that engagement with the natural world and with climatic change and their effects on us are not new: exploring, for instance, the development of religion and language and their relationships with the environment; tracing how growing demands for harvests r...

From the time, many years ago, when Michael Palin first heard that his grandfather had a brother, Harry, who died in tragic circumstances, he was determined to find out more about him.

The quest that followed involved hundreds of hours of painstaking detective work. Michael dug out every bit of family gossip and correspondence he could. He studied every relevant official document. He tracked down what remained of his great-uncle Harry's diaries and letters, and pored over photographs of First...

The sun is setting on the Western world. Slowly but surely, the direction in which the world spins has reversed: where for the last five centuries the globe turned westwards on its axis, it now turns to the east...For centuries, fame and fortune was to be found in the west - in the New World of the Americas. Today, it is the east which calls out to those in search of adventure and riches. The region stretching from eastern Europe and sweeping right across Central Asia deep into China and Indi...

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2024

FOYLE'S NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023

LONGLISTED FOR BLACKWELL'S NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023

ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S BEST IDEAS BOOKS OF 2023

ONE OF THE TELEGRAPH'S FIFTY BEST BOOKS OF 2023

ONE OF PROSPECT'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2023

ONE OF DUA LIPA'S SERVICE95 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR '5 INSPIRING READS TO KICK START THE NEW YEAR'

'Funny and very important' Chris van Tulleken, bestseling author of Ultra-Process...

'Thrilling and eye-opening' Lewis Dartnell

'Unpicks everything we thought we knew... Mind blowing' Cal Flyn

Humans did not make history - we played host.

According to the accepted narrative of progress, a few great humans have bent the arc of history. But in this revelatory book, Dr Jonathan Kennedy argues that germs have done more to shape humanity at every stage, from the first success of Homo sapiens over the equally intelligent Neanderthals to the fall of Rome and the rise of Islam.

How d...

What do computers and smartphones have in common with the railways, electricity, and the automobile? Each triggered a technological revolution that radically changed the way in which vwe live, work, eat, shop and enjoy ourselves.

From Luxury to Necessity shows how these technological revolutions affected everyday life and led to new consumer practices. Even though they would develop into absolute necessities within decades, all of them started as novelties for which meaningful uses were still...

‘No Return Flight” tells the story of the search for the 27 men that glided into the Arnhem area on 18 September 1944. Their Horsa, one among hundreds of plywood gliders, launched them into the cauldron that would be remembered as the Battle of Arnhem.

After landing the Glider Pilots and the Air Landing soldiers wished each other good luck and went their separate ways. Possibly never to see each other again. More than fifty years later one of the Glider Pilots, Sergeant Morley ‘Taffy’...

'The Wehrmacht at War 1939 -1945'is the culmination of twenty five years of research and three years of writing, and is a unique, in-depth presentation of the order of battle and commanders of the German Army ground forces during World War II. Although there are numerous other books that have been published on the order of battle of the German Army, none contain the depth of detail concerning the commanders of the units and the biographies of the Generals that are included in this work. Indee...

This comparative study investigates court politics in four kingdoms that succeeded the south Indian Vijayanagara empire during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries: Ikkeri, Tanjavur, Madurai, and Ramnad. Building on a unique combination of unexplored Indian texts and Dutch archival records, this research offers a captivating new analysis of political culture, power relations, and dynastic developments.

In great detail, this monograph provides both new facts and fresh insights that contest exi...