History

As part of the massive Allied invasion of Normandy, three airborne divisions were dropped behind enemy lines to sow confusion in the German rear and prevent panzer reinforcements from reaching the beaches. In the dark early hours of D-Day, this confusion...

World War II marked the zenith of railway gun development. Although many of the railway guns deployed at the start of the conflict were of World War I vintage, Germany's ambitious development programme saw the introduction of a number of new classes,...

King of a lost realm. Wearer of a pawned crown. Heir to an empire beyond reach. From the ashes of Magna Carta, a new England was to be forged. Henry III became King of England within days of his ninth birthday. His father, King John, had overseen a...

A gripping biography by the author of Brave New WorldThe life of Father Joseph, Cardinal Richelieu's aide, was a shocking paradox. After spending his days directing operations on the battlefield, Father Joseph would pass the night in prayer, or in...

To refer to the private life of Charles II is to abuse the adjective. His personal life was anything but private. His amorous liaisons were largely conducted in royal palaces surrounded by friends, courtiers and literally hundreds of servants and...

WINNER OF THE HWA NON-FICTION CROWN A TIMES AND SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Britain's wartime story has been told many times, but never as cleverly as this.' Dominic Sandbrook In the bleak first half of the Second World War, Britain stood alone...

One of the most devastating portraits ever drawn of a human society - life in Hitler's Germany during the Third ReichThe Nazis developed a social system unprecedented in history. It was rigidly hierarchical, with the seemingly beneficent and ascetic...

A book of surpassing importance that should be required reading for leaders and policymakers throughout the world For thirty years Ben Kiernan has been deeply involved in the study of genocide and crimes against humanity. He has played a key role in...

The fifties was the decade that saw Birmingham getting back to its feet, shaking off the dust and demolition of the war years and slowly getting on with the business of "Life as normal". For that reason we've deliberately weighted the book in favour of...

'A huge, fizzing omnium-gatherum of a book . . . marvellous' Daily Telegraph'Witty, wise and elegant . . . a classic of history itself' The Spectator'Grave and witty, suave yet pointed . . . full of energy' Hilary Mantel'An enthralling investigation . . ...

Famed historian and author of the groundbreaking "The Case for Colonialism" demonstrates that, contary to modern presuppositions, German colonialism from its early roots to the mid-twentieth century was overall a force for good in the world where...

Willy Messerschmitt's Bf 109 is among the most famous fighter aircraft in the history of military aviation, and it was during the Spanish Civil War that it first saw combat. Using newly discovered records, the author describes the Bf 109's operational...

The Panavia Tornado is a twin-engine fighter jet with variable wing geometry. Three main versions of the Tornado were created: the attack version - Tornado IDS (Interdictor/Strike), the interceptor version - Tornado ADV (Air Defense Variant) and the...

Major General Julian Thompson first wrote No Picnic when the momentous events of April - June 1982 were fresh in his mind. As Commander of 3 Commando Brigade, he was at the heart of the planning and conduct of the War. Under his direct command had been...

Henry II became King of England in 1154 after twenty years of civil war. He was the first Plantagenet king, the founder of England's most successful and longest-ruling dynasty. But Henry did not come to the throne alone. He had married Eleanor of...

'I wish you a Merry Xmas but no compliments of the season' - Jane AustenChristmas comes up time and time again in Jane Austen's books, from childish chaos in Persuasion to fraught festivities in Northanger Abbey. Join Christmas historian Maria Hubert on...

In the latter half of the 19th Century, the Gosport side of Portsmouth harbour was developed as a fortified port. Fort Blockhouse, originally established in 1495, was updated and became the home of the Royal Engineers' Submarine Mining School in 1873...

For children in Portsmouth, the 1950s was an exciting time. With the war over and a renewed enthusiasm in the air, life was good. There was a range of entertainment - as well as day trips and holidays to the beach, families could relax in front of the...

Explore the entire history of the ancient Egyptian state from 3000 B.C. to 400 A.D. with this authoritative volume The newly revised Second Edition of A History of Ancient Egypt delivers an up-to-date survey of ancient Egypt's history from its origins to...

The story of the enigmatic Jozef Pilsudski, the founding father of modern Poland: a brilliant military leader and high-minded statesman who betrayed his own democratic vision by seizing power in a military coup.In the story of modern Poland, no one...

There was life before the fall.1989 was a year of astonishing and rapid change: the fall of the Berlin Wall marked the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and an end to an entire way of life for millions of people behind the Iron Curtain. Bloc Life...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781785374456Author Gearoid O FaoleanFormat PaperbackPage Count 320Imprint Merrion PressPublisher Merrion Press

The World Crisis is considered by many to be Winston S. Churchill's literary masterpiece. Published across five volumes between 1923 and 1931, Churchill here tells the story of The Great War, from its origins to the long shadow it cast on the following...

A TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR From the preeminent historian of 20th century Spain Paul Preston, Architects of Terror is a new history of how paranoia, conspiracy and anti-Semitism was used to justify the military coup of 1936 and enabled the...

The inside story, told by the archaeological detectives themselves, of the extraordinary discovery of the world's oldest papyri - revealing how King Khufu's men built the Great Pyramid at Giza. Pierre Tallet's discovery of the Red Sea Scrolls - the...

This new edition of Lucy Wooding's Henry VIII is fully revised and updated to provide an insightful and original portrait of one of England's most unforgettable monarchs and the many paradoxes of his character and reign. Henry was a Renaissance prince...

'Exquisitely written and ripe with detail' Sunday Times. 'An engaging book... He knows his British stuff' The Times. 'One of England's most skilled and alluring prose writers in or out of fiction, has done something even more original' London Review...

Agincourt was an astonishing clash of arms, a pivotal moment in the Hundred Years War and the history of warfare in general.King Henry V's exhausted troops were preparing for certain defeat as they faced a far larger French army. What was to take place...

Where do we find the world's very first art? When, and why, did people begin experimenting with different materials, forms and colours? Were our once-cousins, the Neanderthals, also capable of creating art? Prehistorians have been asking these questions...

'Unquestionably the most authoritative, balanced, readable, and meticulously documented introduction to the Third Reich.' - International History Review Sir Ian Kershaw is regarded by many as the world's leading authority on Hitler and the Third...

The sect was said to harbour dark designs to overthrow the government. Its teachers used a dead language that was impenetrable to all but the innermost circle of believers. Its priests preached love and kindness, but helped local warlords acquire ...

It brings together the recent work of archaeologists, historians and geographers, and presents an up-to-date interpretation of the area. With numerous illustrations (many in full colour), this book will delight and inform anyone interested in Romney...

Winner of the 1989 Whitbread Prize for Book of the Year, this is the first volume of Holmes's seminal two-part examination of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, one of Britain's greatest poets. 'Coleridge: Early Visions' is the first part of Holmes's...

Most of the women who ever lived left no trace of their existence on the record of history. Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century women of the middling and lower levels of society left no letters or diaries in which they expressed what they felt or thought...

For decades now, America's national security state has grown ever bigger, ever more secretive and powerful, and ever more abusive. Only once did someone manage to put a stop to any of it.Senator Frank Church of Idaho was an unlikely hero. He led...

A unique, colorful view of Victorian London when residents both famous and now-forgotten endured "the Great Stink" across one hot summer While 1858 in London may have been noteworthy for its broiling summer months and the related stench of the...

Retired from service close to a quarter century ago, the English Electric (BAC) Lightning has become a cult subject with aviation enthusiasts, especially those who, like the author, remember seeing this mighty interceptor take to the air. As its Avons...

Using the images captured by the camera lens over the last hundred years, Emrys Jenkins and Roy Green have reconstructed the broad canvas of past life in the Upper Rhondda Fawr valley - in Cwmparc and Treorchy through Ynyswen and Penyrenglyn, Treherbert...

Old English Lives of Saints, a series composed in the 990s by the Benedictine monk Aelfric in his distinctive alliterative prose, portrays an array of saints-including virgin martyrs, married virgins, aristocrats, kings, soldiers, and bishops-for a late...

Africa. The cradle of civilisation. From the dawn of human time in prehistoric Africa right through to the so-called 'Arab Spring' of 2011, Gordon Kerr offers a comprehensive introduction to the sprawling history of this enormous continent. He begins...