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...

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>

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 harrowing narrative of the Holland America cruise ship Zaandam, which set sail with a deadly and little-understood stowaway—COVID-19—days before the world shut down in March 2020.

In early 2020, the world was on edge. An ominous virus was spreading on different continents, and no one knew what the coming weeks would bring. Far from the hot spots, the cruise ship Zaandam, owned by Holland America, was preparing to sail from Buenos Aires, Argentina, loaded with 1,200 passengers—American...

An enthralling journey through the history of books and libraries in the ancient world and those who have helped preserve their rich literary traditions

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...

Even before Amsterdam there was a dazzling North Sea port at the hub of the known world: the city of Antwerp.

Antwerp was sensational like nineteenth-century Paris or twentieth-century New York, somewhere anything could happen or at least be believed: killer bankers, easy kisses, a market in secrets and every kind of heresy. For half the sixteenth century, it was the place for breaking rules - religious, sexual, intellectual.

In Antwerp, things changed. One man cornered all the money in the c...