North Korea is an impoverished, famine-ridden nation, but it is also a nuclear power whose dictator Kim Jong-un regularly threatens his neighbors and adversaries, the United States in particular, with destruction. Even though Kim and President Donald Trump's responses to him dominate the daily headlines, the idea that North Korea is a menace is not a new one. Indeed, ever since Korea was first divided at the end of World War II, the tension between its northern and southern halves has riveted...

An exhilarating introduction to the vivid, violent, boisterous world of the Norse myths, and their cultural legacy, in an attractive and handy format.

The Ottoman Empire was one of the most important non-Western states to survive from medieval to modern times, and played a vital role in European and global history. It continues to affect the peoples of the Middle East, the Balkans and central and western Europe to the present day. This new survey examines the major trends during the latter years of the empire; it pays attention to gender issues and to hotly-debated topics such as the treatment of minorities.

In this second edition, Donald Q...

Why, for centuries, did people fear fruit?All these questions - and more - are answered in this juicy, truly intimate history of the home. Through the bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen, Lucy Worsley explores what people actually did in bed, in the bath, at the table, and at the stove.

This fourth edition has been updated throughout to discuss the global Middle Ages, medieval slavery, climate change and intercontinental pandemics and European exchange with Africa, the Americas and Asia to provide students with a broader understanding of the medieval period which looks beyond the usual European boarders reflecting the new trends in teaching and research. Chapter summaries have been added to each chapter to support students' understanding of the topics, and the glossary has b...

Now in its third edition, Food in World History explores culinary cultures and food politics throughout the world, from ancient times to the present day, with expanded discussions of industrialization, indigeneity, colonialism, gender, environment, and food and power.

Schama explores the mysterious contradictions of the Dutch nation that invented itself from the ground up, attained an unprecedented level of affluence, and lived in constant dread of being corrupted by happiness. Drawing on a vast array of period documents and sumptuously reproduced art, Schama re-creates in precise detail a nation's mental state. He tells of bloody uprisings and beached whales, of the cult of hygiene and the plague of tobacco, of thrifty housewives and profligate tulip-spec...