The football World Cup is the most watched sporting event on the planet. It has become a global obsession: 211 nations initially entered the 2022 edition. It has been running for almost a century. Yet there is no comprehensive history of the tournament: based on fresh interviews and meticulously researched this book will change that.

By 1930, football had outgrown the Olympic Games. A new competition, run by Fifa, would take international football to the next level. After a shambolic...

A Short History of European Law brings to life 2,500 years of legal history, tying current norms to the circumstances of their conception. Tamar Herzog describes how successive legal systems built upon one another, from ancient times through the European Union. Roman law formed the backbone of each configuration, though the way it was used and reshaped varied dramatically from one century and place to the next.

Only by considering Continental civil law and English common law together do we se...

The definitive history of Weimar politics, culture, and societyA New York Times Book Review Editor’s ChoiceA Financial Times Best Book of the YearThoroughly up-to-date, skillfully written, and strikingly illustrated, Weimar Germany brings to life an era of unmatched creativity in the twentieth century—one whose influence and inspiration still resonate today. Eric Weitz has written the authoritative history that this fascinating and complex period deserves, and he illuminates the uniquely ...

Are mass violence and catastrophes the only forces that can seriously decrease economic inequality? To judge by thousands of years of history, the answer is yes. Tracing the global history of inequality from the Stone Age to today, Walter Scheidel shows that it never dies peacefully. The Great Leveler is the first book to chart the crucial role of violent shocks in reducing inequality over the full sweep of human history around the world.

The "Four Horsemen" of leveling-mass-mobilization warf...

A handy and colourful illustrated guide to reading, writing and understanding ancient Egyptian names, epithets, titles and phrases.

A compelling book capturing the glory of Sicily’s most significant periods, revealing the island’s unique identity, history, achievements and culture.

A tour de force of both European and military history, The Franco-Prussian War is a superb account of this hugely important conflict, ideal for the student, historian and general reader alike. This Routledge Classics edition includes a new Foreword by Bertrand Taithe.