Europe

On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell....

It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow—and horror. As Princess Diana was laid to rest, billions wondered what Prince William and Prince Harry must be thinking and feeling....

Here are the thrills, grandeur, and unabashed fun of the Greek myths, stylishly retold by Stephen Fry. The legendary writer, actor, and comedian breathes life into ancient tales, from Pandora's box to Prometheus's fire, and transforms the adventures of Zeus and the Olympians....

Winner of the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 1961, this worldwide bestselling classic chronicles the most infamous era of our times.

In the second volume of the landmark American Revolution trilogy by the Pulitzer Prize-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author of The British Are Coming, George Washington’s army fights on the knife edge between victory and defeat.

The 14th century reflects two contradictory images: on the one hand, a glittering time of crusades and castles, cathedrals and chivalry; and on the other, a time of ferocity and spiritual agony, a world of chaos and the plague....

Jean McConville's abduction was one of the most notorious episodes of the vicious conflict known as The Troubles. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the I.R.A. was responsible....

A lively and engaging narrative history showing the common threads in the cultures that gave birth to our own....

This definitive biography of one of history's most influential father-son duos tells the story of two rulers who gripped the world - and their rise and fall from power....

The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in 25 years than the Romans did in 400....

On Winston Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away....

While it’s easy to get caught up - and, rightfully so - in the art of the Renaissance, you cannot have a full, rounded understanding of just how important these centuries were without investigating the period's politics, its spirituality, its philosophies, its economics....

A never-before-told story of Virginia Hall, the American spy who changed the course of World War II, from the author of Clementine....

In the newest installment of the best-selling series Mythos, legendary author and actor Stephen Fry moves from the exploits of the Olympian gods to the deeds of mortal heroes....

At one time, Corrie ten Boom would have laughed at the idea that she had a story to tell.....

The definitive biography of the great soldier-statesman by the New York Times best-selling author of The Storm of War....

The New York Times bestselling author returns with a biography examining the dramatic life and unparalleled leadership of England's greatest medieval king.

The authors of The Bright Ages return with a real-life Game of Thrones—the story of the Carolingian Civil War, a bloody, protracted battle pitting brother against brother, father against son, that would end an empire, upend a continent, and redefine the future of Europe.

In this brilliant conclusion to his best-selling Mythos trilogy, legendary author and actor Stephen Fry retells the tale of the Trojan War....

The Roman Republic was the most remarkable state in history. What began as a small community of peasants camped among marshes and hills ended up ruling the known world.

This sweeping history of the often-violent conflict between Islam and the West sheds a revealing light on current hostilities....

In this New York Times bestselling biography, Eric Metaxas takes both strands of Bonhoeffer's life—the theologian and the spy—and draws them together to tell a searing story of incredible moral courage in the face of monstrous evil.

This instant New York Times bestselling “dynamic detective story” (The New York Times) reveals the hidden history Rudolf Diesel, one of the world’s greatest inventors, and his mysterious disappearance on the eve of World War I.

The first Plantagenet king inherited a blood-soaked kingdom from the Normans and transformed it into an empire stretched at its peak from Scotland to Jerusalem. In this epic history, Dan Jones vividly resurrects this fierce and seductive royal dynasty and its mythic world....

A road trip book with a difference. Stars of Outlander - Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish - explore Scotland, a land of raw beauty, poetry, feuding, music, history and warfare....

In this riveting true story, Kate Summerscale mines the archives to uncover the lives of Christie’s victims, the tabloid frenzy that their deaths inspired, and the truth about what happened inside the house. What she finds sheds fascinating light on the origins of our fixation with true crime—and suggests a new solution to one of the most notorious cases of the century.

On August 25, 1944, Rose Valland, a woman of quiet daring, found herself in a desperate position. From the windows of her beloved Jeu de Paume museum, where she had worked and ultimately spied, she could see the battle to liberate Paris thundering around her. The Jeu de Paume, co-opted by Nazi leadership, was now the Germans’ final line of defense. Would the museum curator be killed before she could tell the truth—a story that would mean nothing less than saving humanity’s cultural inheritance?

Tiffany Jenkins’s groundbreaking book traces the emergence of private sanctuaries from authority and public opinion to show that private life is a very recent – and hard-won – achievement. Strangers and Intimates is animated by dramatic human confrontations: from the political struggles in the seventeenth century that led to Edmund Coke’s rallying cry that ‘an Englishman’s home is his castle’; to the first modern privacy panic in 1844, when the British government opened private letters sent to the exiled Italian republican Giuseppe Mazzini; and more.

Great British Icons is a fascinating exploration of fifty of the most iconic symbols and institutions of British culture. From the red phone box to the Spitfire, from the Wellington boot to Concorde, this book takes you on a journey through the history and significance of these beloved objects and their role in British history and culture. Each chapter delves deep into the origins and evolution of these iconic symbols, tracing their history from their earliest beginnings to the present day. Along the way, you’ll discover fascinating anecdotes and insights into their cultural significance,...

WHAT IF THE THIRD REICH NEVER REALLY ENDED? Operation Ghost Reich: From Bavaria to Buenos Aires rips open sealed archives, Vatican rat-lines, and Mossad dossiers to reveal the labyrinth that let Hitler's most ruthless lieutenants vanish, only to re-emerge as "respectable" neighbors, engineers, and even Cold War assets. THE CHASE BEGINS ON A FOG-SOAKED BAVARIAN PLATFORM May 1945: forged Red Cross papers, rosaries hiding SS gold, and a ghost train headed south mark the moment thousands of war criminals step off history's stage and into suburbia. Their escape ignites a five-part global pursuit...

In Plato and the Tyrant, acclaimed historian and classicist James Romm draws on personal letters of Plato to show how a philosopher helped topple the leading Greek power of the era: the opulent city of Syracuse. There, Plato encountered two authoritarian rulers, a father and son both named Dionysius, and tried to steer them toward philosophy. At the same time, he worked on his masterpiece, Republic, in which he conceived a ruler who unites perfect wisdom with absolute power.

Who really built Europe's finest Romanesque monuments? Clergymen presiding over holy sites are credited throughout history, while highly skilled creators remain anonymous. But the buildings speak for themselves.

The enduring image of World War I is of men stuck in muddy trenches, and of vast armies deadlocked in a fight neither could win. It was a war of barbed wire, poison gas, and horrific losses as officers led their troops on mass charges across No Man’s Land and into a hail of bullets. While these impressions are all too true, they hide the fact that trench warfare was dynamic and constantly evolving throughout the war as all armies struggled to find a way to break through the opposing lines.

Eagle Days transforms the Luftwaffe’s historical role during the RAF’s ‘Finest Hour’ from a cartoonish antagonist to a multidimensional, flawed-yet-formidable opponent. The narrative contains not just the voices of the air crews who conducted the fighting, but uniquely never-before-translated primary source material of other contemporary eyewitnesses, (Luftwaffe’s paratroopers, anti-aircraft gunners and air signalmen). Eagle Days will offer all fans of this period a refreshing, comprehensive and exciting account of the Luftwaffe’s real experiences during the Battle of Britain.

Before the emperors, there was the Republic. Before the Republic fell, there was the Rubicon. History of the Roman Empire: Power, Betrayal, and the End of the Republic is a sweeping, uncompromising account of how one of history’s most sophisticated democracies collapsed into autocracy—not through foreign invasion or sudden catastrophe, but through internal corrosion, political violence, and the dangerous allure of strongmen. Based entirely on verifiable sources, this work strips away myth and romanticism to reveal the hard truths of Roman political decay and the rise of imperial power. ...

After the WWII, Germans began a generation-long debate about the status that should be accorded Wehrmacht deserters. The topic would be debated between the two Germanies and engaged survivors and perpetrators, playwrights, and judges, those who had stayed in the ranks and those who had not. Was the Wehrmacht a coward, a victim, or a role model? The book's discussion of this postwar debate explains how and why Germany finally decided to overturn military court-martial verdicts from the Second World War fifty years after its conclusion.

Descubra el fascinante mundo de los vikingos y la mitología nórdica Dos manuscritos en un solo libro: Mitos y leyendas vikingos: Relatos apasionantes, cuentos e historia de los vikingos y la mitología nórdica Vikingos en Inglaterra: Una guía apasionante sobre el gran ejército pagano, así como las incursiones, guerras y asentamientos vikingos en Gran Bretaña Explore la increíble historia y los fascinantes relatos de los vikingos en este libro fácil de leer. ¡Sumérjase en el mundo de los valientes guerreros y dioses míticos! Primera parte: Mitos y leyendas vikingas Mitos de la ...

An unprecedented examination of the ways in which the uninhibited urban sexuality, sexual experimentation, and medical advances of pre-Weimar Berlin created and molded our modern understanding of sexual orientation and gay identity.

Maria Theresa was the single most powerful woman in eighteenth-century Europe. At the age of just twenty-three she succeeded to the Habsburg domains only to find them contested by almost every power in Europe. In this engrossing biography, Richard Bassett traces Maria Theresa's life and complex legacy. Drawing on hitherto unpublished sources, Bassett reveals her keen sense of moderation and tolerance, innovative ideas on free trade and finance, and studied reluctance to resort to policies of territorial expansion.

The American Revolution is replete with seminal moments that every American learns in school, from the “shot heard ‘round the world” to the Declaration of Independence, but the events that led up to the fighting at Lexington & Concord were borne out of 10 years of division between the British and their American colonies over everything from colonial representation in governments to taxation, the nature of searches, and the quartering of British regulars in private houses.

Carlos Gaspar, senior researcher at the Portuguese Institute of International Relations (IPRI NOVA) and political advisor to the first three elected Presidents of the Portuguese Republic between 1977 and 2006 commented on the book: “Kenneth Maxwell is the doyen of historians of the revolution, decolonization and Portuguese democracy and as such was honored at the conferences held in Portugal and Brazil to commemorate the 50th anniversary of 25 April.” In 2024, Maxwell travelled to Brazil, to the United States and to Portugal to give three keynote lectures at three different occasions. ...

Aachen saw some of the fiercest fighting of the Second World War. Through the determined defense of their city the citizens of Aachen held off the oncoming American forces for six weeks, giving the Nazis time to mobilize their troops for what would become the Battle of the Bulge. Had it not been for dogged resistance of these men and women the last great German offensive in the West might have never occurred, potentially ending the war in Europe six months earlier and saving the lives of thousands.

Las guerras napoleónicas: una lucha de poder que dio forma al mundo moderno ¿Se ha malinterpretado el verdadero impacto de las guerras Napoleónicas? Sumérjase en una época de batallas colosales, estrategias militares revolucionarias y un mundo alterado para siempre por la implacable ambición de Napoleón Bonaparte. Las Guerras Napoleónicas le ofrece un asiento en primera fila de una época en la que el destino de las naciones pendía de un hilo. ¿Por qué este libro? Descubra la maestría táctica de Napoleón Descubra cómo las innovadoras estrategias militares de Napoleón ...

1742: the famous dome atop Saint Peter's Basilica, designed by Michelangelo, is fractured and threatened with collapse. The dome is the pride of Italy and the largest of its kind anywhere in the world. And no one knows how to fix it. This engaging and colorful narrative tells the overlooked story of how Michelangelo's Dome was saved from disaster by three mathematicians and Pope Benedict XIV, who had asked them for help.

In The First Fleets, Benjamin C. Schaffer reveals how, contrary to widespread beliefs, the American colonies had a long tradition of independent naval defense decades before the Revolution. He demonstrates that Anglo-American governments established and maintained significant provincial naval forces and that the history of provincial navies illuminates broader aspects of colonial history and the colonies' ultimate break with the British Crown. Based on meticulous research, Schaffer recounts the sea-borne threats that American colonies faced from the French, Spanish, pirates, and others.

The roots of today's environmental catastrophe run deep into humanity's past. Through this unprecedented reading of Homer's Iliad, the award-winning classicist Edith Hall examines how this foundational text both documents the environmental practices of the ancient Greeks and betrays an awareness of the dangers posed by the destruction of the natural landscape. Underlying Homer's account of brutal military operations, alliances, and cataclysmic struggle is a palpable understanding that the direction in which humanity was headed could create a world that was uninhabitable.

From the Teutoburg Forest to Hastings, from Hengist and Horsa to Hereward the Wake, from ancient Germania to Roman Britain, from Germanic Gods to Christianity, discover the epic true story of how the English people and England itself came to be. Who were their Gods, legends, monsters and heroes? What were their customs, folklore, and traditions? See Beowulf in a new light, analysed and detailed like never before. Learn of Woden, the leader of the Wild Hunt, the forbearer of Father Christmas. Discover Woden's elite warriors, the Harii, Wolf-Coats and Berserkers. Through figures such as ...

La Edad Media no fue esa época oscura llena de mugre, fanatismo y dragones (¡ojalá esto último fuera cierto!) que te ha contado tu cuñado y el cine, sino un periodo fascinante, diverso y crucial para la historia de la humanidad y para entender de dónde venimos. El youtuber y escritor Andoni Garrido Fernández desgrana los mil años del periodo medieval en Europa con su particular estilo riguroso a la par que desternillante y desvela las filias y las fobias de unos monarcas que querían reinar mucho, pero, a veces, no mandaban ni en su casa.

As nationalism and anti-immigration rhetoric surge in France (and elsewhere), The Shortest History of France presents a portrait of a nation whose politics and society have always been shaped by global forces. Grounded in up-to-date historical scholarship that avoids the traps of national exceptionalism, Jones reminds us that it was only after the first millennium of French history that a nation-state began to emerge.

Arguing that global communications have fragmented national cultures and that multiculturalism, intended to reduce social frictions, is today reinforcing them, Sacks argues for a new approach to national identity, making the case for "integrated diversity" within a framework of shared political values. Britain, he argues, will have to construct a national narrative as a basis for identity, reinvigorate the concept of the common good, and identify shared interests among currently conflicting groups.