See the world in a strand of hair...

One of the great historians of our age asks: how far can a single leader alter the course of history?

The modern era saw the emergence of individuals who had command over a terrifying array of instruments of control, persuasion and death. Whole societies were re-shaped and wars fought, often with a merciless contempt for the most basic norms. At the summit of these societies were leaders whose personalities had somehow given them the ability to do whatever they wished.

Ian Kershaw's new book ...

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...

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND SUNDAY TIMES, OBSERVER AND BBC HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR

FINALIST FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2022

'Pacey and potentially revolutionary' Sunday Times

'Iconoclastic and irreverent ... an exhilarating read' The Guardian

For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike - either free and equal, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could be achieved only by sacrificing those original freedoms or, alternat...

»Als kleines Mädchen wurde ich Zeugin davon, wie die Welt, die ich liebte, durch sinnlosen Hass zerstört wurde und verschwand – und mit ihr meine beste Freundin Anne.«

Als die fünfjährige Hannah Pick-Goslar 1933 mit ihrer Familie aus Nazi-Deutschland nach Amsterdam floh, freundete sie sich dort rasch mit einem lebenslustigen Mädchen namens Anne Frank an. Jahrelang waren die beiden unzertrennlich. Doch 1942 veränderte sich das Leben der zwei besten Freundinnen auf dramatische Weise. ...