The adventurous stories of the greatest explorers in history.

The greatest mass extinction in Earths history happened some 251 million years ago. In this cataclysm at least 90 per cent of life was killed, both on land and in the sea, almost bringing evolution to a halt. What caused destruction on such an unimaginable scale? Was it the impact of a huge meteorite, or prolonged volcanic eruption in Siberia?

Who are the Europeans? Where did they come from? This book brings together the evidence and combines it with archaeology and linguistics to produce a new history of Europe.

A rich, wide-ranging history of ignorance in all its forms, from antiquity to the present day

With great flair and authority, the author describes Prussia's great battles, dynastic marriages and astonishing reversals of fortune, its brilliant and charismatic leaders from the Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg to Bismarck and Frederick the Great, the military machine and the progressive, enlightened values on which it was built.

The horrific series of conflicts known as the Thirty Years War (1618-48) tore the heart out of Europe, killing perhaps a quarter of all Germans and laying waste to whole areas of Central Europe to such a degree that many towns and regions never recovered. This title explains a compelling series of events.

King of Prussia, German Emperor, war leader and defeated exile, Kaiser Wilhelm II was one of the most important figures in the history of twentieth-century Europe. This book presents a fresh interpretation of this contentious figure, focusing on how his thirty-year reign from 1888 to 1918 affected Germany, and the rest of Europe.