20th Century

On 28 June 1914 the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in the Balkans. Five fateful weeks later the Great Powers of Europe were at war. Much time and ink has been spent ever since trying to identify the 'guilty' person or state...

It is my considered judgement that, had it not been for the Russian Revolution, there would very likely have been no National Socialism; probably no Second World War and no decolonization; and certainly no Cold War, which one dominated our lives. I will...

A fascinating and hilarious gallop through twentieth-century British history, by comedian Al Murray.An awful lot has happened in the last 100 years or so. In fact, when you look at how much went on in the 20th century, it's amazing it didn't take longer...

Beginning in the broken aftermath of the First World War and the Treaty of Versailles that made German recovery almost impossible, Whittock tells not just the account of the men who rose to the fore in the dangerous days of the Weimar republic, circling...

The first full biography of the fearless and brilliant Maria Yudina, a legendary pianist who was central to Russian intellectual life "Playing with Fire is a ground-breaking work-a phenomenal biography of a towering human spirit of everlasting...

The extraordinary, never-before-told story of Bep Voskuijl, Anne Frank’s closest friend during the 761 days she spent in the Secret Annex. Bep was just twenty-three when the Franks went into hiding and she risked her life to protect them, plunging into...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781760760984Author Sara SilmFormat HardbackPage Count 256Imprint Thames and Hudson (Australia) Pty LtdPublisher Thames and Hudson (Australia) Pty...

The riveting story of a true-life female Indiana Jones: an archaeologist who survived the Nazis and then saved Egypt's ancient temples. In the 1960s, the world's attention was focused on a nail-biting race against time: fifty countries had contributed...

Nazi Germany, June 1943, Buchenwald concentration camp. The last place you'd expect to find any form of justice. And yet justice against the SS men who brutalised the prisoners here would be attempted by the unlikeliest of sources - SS officer Konrad...

THE MAN WHO BROKE INTO AUSCHWITZ is the extraordinary true story of a British soldier who marched willingly into Buna-Monowitz, the concentration camp known as Auschwitz III. In the summer of 1944, Denis Avey was being held in a POW labour camp, E715,...

A moving memoir from a woman who made a fortune in a man's world and then gave it all away...soon to be turned into a filmIn 1962, Stephanie 'Steve' Shirley created a software company when the concept of software barely existed. Freelance Programmers...

Praise for Gill Paul: 'A cleverly crafted novel and an enthralling story... A triumph.' DINAH JEFFERIES 'Gripping, romantic and evocative of its time.' LULU TAYLOR It is 1912. Against all odds, the...

A Financial Times Book of the Year 'Jaw-dropping' Daily Express 'Grimly fascinating' Financial Times 'Humane, timely, accessible and well-researched' Irish Times The dictator who grew so rich on his country's cocoa crop that he built a...

By the time the First World War ended in 1918, eight million people had died in what had been perhaps the most apocalyptic episode the world had known. This Very Short Introduction provides a concise and insightful history of the 'Great War', focusing on...

A thought-provoking reconsideration of how the revolutionary movements of the 1970s set the mold for today's activism. The 1970s was a decade of "subversives". Faced with various progressive and revolutionary social movements, the forces of...

'A groundbreaking and important book that will surely reframe our understanding of the Great War' David Lammy 'A genuinely groundbreaking piece of research' BBC History 'Meticulously researched and beautifully written' Military History Monthly In...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781915343529Author Mike LepineFormat HardbackPage Count 144Imprint Sona BooksPublisher Danann Media Publishing LimitedWeight(grams) 757gDimensions(mm) 273mm...

WINNER OF THE HWA NON-FICTION CROWNAN IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEARA NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW NOTABLE BOOKA FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDElizabeth Anscombe: defiantly brilliant, chain-smoking, trouser-wearing Catholic and...

'Magisterial' - The Financial TimesAn updated edition of Ramachandra Guha's India After Gandhi with new material that explains the major events, policy shifts and controversies of the past decade, placing them in their proper sociological and historical...

'Viktor Frankl gives us the gift of looking at everything in life as an opportunity' Edith Eger, bestselling author of The Choice'Offers a path to finding hope even in these dark times' The New York Times A rediscovered masterpiece by the 16 million...

OBSERVER BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2015TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT BOOKS OF THE YEAR and OBSERVER BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2014WINNER OF THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION'S MORRIS D. FORKOSCH PRIZE 2016'The most complete and plausible exploration of the roots of the...

A blackly funny account of everyday life in Ramallah and refreshingly different from most writing on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Sharon and My Mother-in-Law describes Suad Amiry's life on the West Bank from the early 1980s to the first decade of...

'The unofficial voice of modern Irish history' EconomistWhen President of the Irish Republic Michael Collins signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921, he remarked to Lord Birkenhead, 'I may have signed my actual death warrant.' In August 1922 at...

The authoritative and fascinating history of the rise and fall of the state-owned British Rail'Wolmar's book is impeccably organised and makes a fast, enjoyable read' THE TIMES Literary Supplement________British Rail wasn't how we're asked to remember it...

The definitive history of the supernatural in Nazi Germany-the occult ideas, esoteric sciences, and pagan religions touted by the Third Reich in the service of power"[Kurlander] shows how swiftly irrational ideas can take hold, even in an age before...

For almost all nations the First World War was an unparalleled disaster, but the Italian experience especially was to have catastrophic consequences. Weakened and embittered, trying and failing to come to terms with 600,000 dead and with an entire...

Peter Hennessy's The Secret State: Preparing for the Worst 1945-2010 is the story of secret government plans for combatting attacks on Britain, from the Cold War to modern counter-terrorism. Now completely revised and updated, Peter Hennessy's acclaimed...

Throughout the 1970s the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) initiated an anarchic campaign that permanently changed the face of Britain. Inspired by the Stonewall uprisings in the US, the GLF demanded a 'Absolute Freedom For All' worldwide. Yet half a century...

Describes all the events and personalities involved in the monumental undertaking which precipitated revolution, scandal, economic crisis, and a new Central American republic.Book InformationISBN 9780671244095Author David McculloughFormat PaperbackPage...

The first English-language book to document the men who emerged from the gulags to become Russia's much-feared crime class: the vory v zakone Mark Galeotti is the go-to expert on organized crime in Russia, consulted by governments and police around the...

The Second World War almost destroyed Stalin's Soviet Union. But victory over Nazi Germany provided the dictator with his great opportunity: to expand Soviet power way beyond the borders of the Soviet state. Well before the shooting stopped in 1945,...

For the British people, 1947 was a momentous year. For three long months, they endured the worst winter in living memory, with drastic fuel shortages and power cuts, and continuing food rationing post-World War Two. Heavy snow gave way to widespread...

Margot Asquith was perhaps the most daring and unconventional Prime Minister's wife in British history. Known for her wit, style and habit of speaking her mind, she transformed 10 Downing Street into a glittering social and intellectual salon. Yet her...

In this concise historical analysis of the Mexican Revolution, Gilbert M. Joseph and Jurgen Buchenau explore the revolution's causes, dynamics, consequences, and legacies. They do so from varied perspectives, including those of campesinos and workers;...

Virginia Nicholson's Among the Bohemians is a portrait of England's artistic community in the first half of the twentieth century, engaged in a grand experiment.Subversive, eccentric and flamboyant - the Bohemians ate garlic and didn't always wash; they...

WINNER OF THE CRICKET SOCIETY AND MCC BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2016SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD'I doubt there will be a better book written about this period in West Indies cricket history.' Clive LloydCricket had never...

Cilka's Journey is the million copy bestselling sequel to the phenomenon The Tattooist of Auschwitz.Don't miss the conclusion to The Tattooist of Auschwitz Trilogy, Three Sisters. Available now.'She was the bravest person I ever met'Lale Sokolov, The...

Uncovers the interplay of the physical and the aesthetic that shaped Viennese modernism and offers a new interpretation of this moment in the history of the West. Viennese modernism is often described in terms of a fin-de-siecle fascination with the...

When the Ottoman Empire collapsed, so many spies mingled in the lobby of Istanbul's Pera Palace Hotel that the manager put up a sign asking them to relinquish seats to paying guests. As the multi-ethnic empire became a Turkish republic, Russian emigres...

A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERSHORTLISTED FOR THE LIONEL GELBER PRIZE 2020'Brilliant ... a historical masterpiece' The Times Literary SupplementFrom one of Britain's most distinguished historians and the bestselling author of Hitler, this is the definitive...