World

Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this piercing work distills 3,000 years of the history of power into 48 well-explicated laws....

A groundbreaking narrative that explores the ways in which biology and history have shaped our understanding of what it means to be “human”.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Sapiens comes the groundbreaking story of how information networks have made, and unmade, our world.

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....

A “thrilling and superbly crafted” (The Wall Street Journal) account of the most momentous voyage of the Age of Exploration, which culminated in Captain James Cook’s death in Hawaii, and left a complex and controversial legacy still debated to this day.

When Autobiography of a Yogi first appeared in 1946, it was acclaimed as a landmark work in its field....

Bill Bryson has been an enormously popular author both for his travel books and for his books on the English language. Now, this beloved comic genius turns his attention to science...

Here in a single volume is the entire, unabridged recording of Gibbon's masterpiece....

The mutiny on HMS Bounty, in the South Pacific on 28 April 1789, is one of history's truly great stories - a tale of human drama, intrigue and adventure of the highest order - and in the hands of Peter FitzSimons it comes to life as never before. Commissioned by the Royal Navy to collect breadfruit plants from Tahiti and take them to the West Indies, the Bounty's crew found themselves in a tropical paradise. Five months later, they did not want to leave.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Guns, Germs and Steel examines the rise of civilization and the issues its development has raised throughout history....

Daughter. Duhitár-. Dustr. Dukte. Listen to these English, Sanskrit, Armenian and Lithuanian words, all meaning the same thing, and you hear echoes of one of history’s most unlikely journeys.

Meriwether Lewis and his partner, William Clark, endured incredible hardships and witnessed astounding sights on their 1803 cross-country trip to unexplored West....

From “one of America’s smartest and most charming writers” (NPR), an archaeological romp through the entire history of humankind—and through all five senses—from tropical Polynesian islands to forbidding arctic ice floes, and everywhere in between.

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

Yuval Noah Harari returns with an original, compelling, and provocative book, turning his focus toward humanity's future and our quest to upgrade humans into gods....

Driven by a passion for travel and history and a love of ships and the sea, former Monty Python stalwart and beloved television globe-trotter Michael Palin explores the world of HMS Erebus, last seen on an ill-fated voyage to chart the Northwest Passage....

In this Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, historian Barbara Tuchman brings to life the people and events that led up to World War I....

A trailblazing account of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution—from the development of agriculture and cities to the emergence of "the state", political violence, and social inequality—revealing new possibilities for human emancipation....

The author of Cod and The Basque History of the World takes an extraordinary look at an ordinary substance — salt, the only rock humans eat — and how it has shaped civilization from the very beginning....

The River of Doubt brings alive extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller that happens to feature one of the most famous Americans who ever lived....

Based on the podcast with over one hundred million downloads, Fall of Civilizations brilliantly explores how a range of ancient societies rose to power and sophistication, and how they tipped over into collapse.

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

This classic, definitive account of totalitarianism traces the emergence of modern racism as an "ideological weapon for imperialism"....

This audiobook narrated by acclaimed archaeologist and best-selling author Eric Cline offers a breathtaking account of how the collapse of an ancient civilized world ushered in the first Dark Ages....

The Emperor of All Maladies reveals the many faces of an iconic, shape-shifting disease that is the defining plague of our generation....

Whether it’s the mighty pyramids of Egypt or the majestic temples of Mexico, we have a good idea of what the past looked like. But what about our other senses: The tang of Roman fish sauce and the springy crust of Egyptian sourdough? The boom of medieval cannons and the clash of Viking swords? The frenzied plays of an Aztec ballgame...and the chilling reality that the losers might also lose their lives?

During the 1920s, dozens of expeditions scoured the Chinese and Tibetan wilderness in search of the panda bear, a beast that many believed did not exist. When the two eldest sons of President Theodore Roosevelt sought the bear in 1928, they had little hope of success. Together with a team of scientists and naturalists, they accomplished what a decade of explorers could not, ultimately introducing the panda to the West. In the process, they documented a vanishing world and set off a new era of conservation biology.

Crucifixion, the Romans believed, was the worst fate imaginable, a punishment reserved for slaves. How astonishing it was, then, that people should have come to believe that one particular victim of crucifixion—an obscure provincial by the name of Jesus—was to be worshipped as a god.

Captain William Kidd stands as one of the most notorious "pirate" outlaws ever, but his legend is tainted by a bed of lies. Having captivated imaginations for more than three hundred years and inspired many stories about pirates, troubling questions remain. Was he really a criminal or is the truth more inconvenient: that he was a buccaneer's worst nightmare, a revered pirate hunter turned fall guy for scheming politicians?

Did you know that in March . . . 1940 Birthday Boy Chuck Norris would appear in all the Star Wars movies. He was The Force. March 1496, King Henry VII of England ordered the first official royal "tax on beards," leading to the short-lived "Clean-Shaven Act." 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made the first successful telephone call, famously saying, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you." 1962, pro basketball great Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a single NBA game, a record that still stands today. In 1927, The first solo singing artist to have a million-selling album --- Calypso (1956 ...

Saint Demiana A book written by the great Saint of the Coptic Orthodox Church: Father Bishoï Kamel 1931-1979.

The Horn’s First Master is the gripping true story of a man who took on the deadliest sea on Earth. In 1834, Croatian-born Captain Pietro Giacomo Leva steered an Austro-Hungarian brigantine through the world’s most feared waters and into legend. With towering waves, freezing winds, and brutal conditions, Cape Horn was the ultimate test of skill, courage, and command. Leva passed that test — and carved his name into the history of both his island and his empire. Blending vivid maritime history with sharp-eyed narrative, The Horn’s First Master charts Austria’s unlikely bid for ...

Who needs fiction when real life serves up acid baths, cannibal cults, and killers with freezers full of flesh? 20 stories from 20 countries - all real and all shocking! From acid-dissolved corpses in Pakistan to brutal ritual killings in Tanzania — these aren’t horror stories. They’re real. Climb into Hamburg’s attic of horrors, stand trial with a Cuban war criminal, and uncover the butcher couple of Brazil who turned victims into food — each story in Macabre Volume #2 is meticulously told for lovers of twisted true crime, historical atrocities, and human darkness laid bare. ...

On November 29, 1943, as the Allies’ primary leaders met in Tehran, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt described to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin his idea for the organization that would become the United Nations. The American president suggested that the active arm of the organization be “the Four Policemen”: the U.S., USSR, UK, and China. Stalin agreed with much of the framework in principle, but asserted that China likely would not possess the strength after the war to assist.

Critique of Pure Passion was largely written in Mozambique in 1997 and first published the following year in Uruguay. It is composed of 358 compacts, each of which is a unit in itself. However, this collection of essays revolves around a few basic themes: the formation of ethics and morals based on the fears and anxieties that persist throughout history—renouncement; the ways of understanding and representing the world, life and death, history and the present; humanistic evolution; and the reactions of traditional powers. According to newspaper La República of Montevideo, Uruguay, "In ...

What we wear has always meant more than meets the eye. From ancient robes and royal regalia to corsets, catwalks, and cultural resistance, Threads of Identity unravels the powerful story of fashion as a mirror of civilization. Spanning continents and centuries, this richly woven narrative explores how clothing has shaped—and been shaped by—class, gender, politics, and belief. With vivid detail and thoughtful analysis, M.Y. Sard guides readers through the draped elegance of Greece, the controlled silhouettes of Victorian England, the streetwear revolutions of the 21st century, and ...

Unsolved Medical Mysteries: Explaining the Unexplainable is your chance to explore the strangest and most confounding cases in medical history. In 12 gripping lectures, acclaimed author, historian, and medical humanities expert Dr. Brandy Schillace guides you on a fascinating journey into the unknown, from historical enigmas to modern medical conundrums. With her unique blend of storytelling and scientific insight, Dr. Schillace digs into a range of medical mysteries

From the streets of Petrograd during the heady autumn of 1917, to Mao's stunning victory in October 1949, and Fidel's triumphant arrival in Havana, in January 1959, the history of the twentieth century was transformed in dramatic and profound ways by the Russian, Chinese and Cuban revolutions. Here, the stories of these epoch-defining events are told together for the first time. At the heart of each revolution was an epic journey: Lenin's 1917 return to Russia from exile in Switzerland; Mao's 'Long March' of 1934-35, covering some 6,000 miles across China; and Fidel Castro's return to Cuba.

World War I wasn't just a war between empires. It was a turning point for humanity. It reshaped borders, destroyed monarchies, introduced weapons the world had never seen, and left millions dead. But beyond the trenches, treaties, and tanks, it was fought by people and entire nations struggling to survive. This isn’t just a timeline of dates and battles. This is the human story of the Great War—told with compassion, clarity, and historical depth.

Described by 'The Times' as a series that "ought to be compulsory listening for politicians, scientists, doctors and sundry other professionals who think they know best", Why Did We Do That? uses a distinctive mix of archive and new interviews to uncover the roots of present day problems. All is driven by a narrative which takes unexpected turns, and revels in the black humour with which our greatest blunders are laced.