The book that inspired Steven Spielberg’s acclaimed TV series, produced by Tom Hanks and starring Damian Lewis. Â

Charts world history from the dawn of civilisation to the modern culture we live in today. From the origins of homo-sapiens to the release of Nelson Mandela, from the French Revolution to the Space Race, this book presents an exploration of the human timeline up to and including modern Islam, the world wide web, and the global financial crisis.

‘An absolute gem’ Sunday Times ‘A mouthwatering history’ The Guardian

Spying has changed. In this era of email intercepts and drone strikes, spooks are expected to uncover plots buried in mountains of data. Yet this makes the need for trained field operatives who can verify facts and uncover secrets more acute than ever. The human factor endures. This book gives an account of how modern espionage works.

Over the last half century, sub-Saharan Africa has not had one history, but many. Histories that have intertwined, converged and diverged. They have involved a continuing process of decolonization and state-building, conflict, economic problems but also progress and the perpetual interplay of structure and agency.

This new view of those histories looks in particular at the relationship between territorial, economic, political and societal structures and human agency in the complex an...