Social History

Many of London's Victorian buildings are built of coarse-textured yellow bricks. These are 'London stocks', produced in very large quantities all through the nineteenth century and notable for their ability to withstand the airborne pollutants of the...

In this monumental book, Chris Harman achieves the impossible-a gripping history of the planet from the perspective of the struggling people throughout the ages.From earliest human society to the Holy Roman Empire, from the Middle Ages to the...

A beautifully illustrated history of Britain's most revered and valued institution: the NHS. In March 2020 the UK went into lockdown to help contain the spread of COVID-19 and protect the NHS from one of the greatest threats that it has faced in its...

A compelling history of the Black Death that scoured Europe in the mid 14th-century killing twenty-five million people. It was one of the worst human disasters in history. 'The bodies were sparsely covered that the dogs dragged them forth and...

"A proudly partisan history of the British aristocracy - which scores some shrewd hits against the upper class themselves, and the nostalgia of the rest of us for their less endearing eccentricities. A great antidote to Downton Abbey." (Mary...

A chilling, truly authoritative anthology of real-life accounts of witches, from medieval Europe through colonial AmericaFrom a manual for witch hunters written by King James himself in 1597, to court documents from the Salem witch trials of 1692, to...

'Impossible to summarise and delightfully absorbing, Hadley's book is comfortably the most unexpected history book of the year' Sunday Times A luminous journey through a thousand years of folklore and...

In this important study, Janet Abu-Lughod presents a groundbreaking reinterpretation of global economic evolution and provides a new paradigm for understanding the evolution of world systems by tracing the rise of a system that, at its peak in the...

Geoffrey Hosking is one of the foremost historians of Russia and its people. The result of a lifetime's knowledge, this monumental and authoritative work has been acclaimed as the definitive single-volume history of Russia, tracing its story from the...

National Bestseller * One of the year's most acclaimed works of nonfictionA BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: New York Times, Washington Post, New Yorker, Chicago Tribune, Kirkus, New York Post, Fast CompanyFrom legendary historian Adam Hochschild, a "masterly"...

***A Waterstones Best Books of 2022 pick***Book of the Year in the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and New Statesman'A powerful illumination of a lost world that is nevertheless part of living memory.' Simon Heffer, 'Books of the Year' , Daily Telegraph'A...

A wooden box holds the buttons of three generations of women in Lynn Knight's family - each one with its own tale to tell...Tracing the story of women at home and in work, from the jet buttons of Victorian mourning, to the short skirts of the 1960s,...

From satyrs and sea creatures to griffins and dragons, monsters lay at the heart of the medieval world. Believed to dwell in exotic, remote areas, these inexplicable parts of God's creation aroused fear, curiosity and wonder in equal measure. Powerfully...

This vividly written and lavishly illustrated book challenges many cherished beliefs about the rose. It looks set to establish itself as the definitive history of the Queen of Flowers.Ever since Sappho planted roses at the shrine of Aphrodite, no flower...

This vividly written and lavishly illustrated book challenges many cherished beliefs about the rose. It looks set to establish itself as the definitive history of the Queen of Flowers.Ever since Sappho planted roses at the shrine of Aphrodite, no flower...

The photographs in this book capture the gritty reality of life in East London during the Swinging Sixties. As the images graphically illustrate, the pop revolution and the early stirrings of flower power had little discernible impact on the...

'Fierce, funny and long overdue - I read this book out loud to anyone who'd listen.' Adam Kay'Toksvig's Almanac is intended merely as a starting point for your own discoveries. Find a fabulous (or infamous) woman mentioned and, please, go looking for...

Glasgow: The Autobiography tells the story of the fabled, former Second City of the British Empire from its origins as a bucolic village on the rivers Kelvin and Clyde, through the tumult of the Industrial Revolution to the third millennium. Including...

'An excellent and intelligent investigation of the realities of urban living that respond to no design or directive... This is a book about the nature of London itself' Peter Ackroyd, The TimesA powerful exploration of the seedy side of Victorian London...

The Littlehampton Libels tells the story of a poison-pen mystery that led to a miscarriage of justice in the years following the First World War. There would be four criminal trials before the real culprit was finally punished, with the case challenging...

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE MAJOR NEW NETFLIX SERIES, HOW TO CHANGE YOUR MIND'It's a trip - engrossing, eye-opening, mind altering' New Statesman 'Fascinating. Pollan is the perfect guide ... curious, careful, open minded' The Guardian Of all the many...

What is 'nothing'? What remains when you take all the matter away? Can empty space - a void - exist? This Very Short Introduction explores the science and the history of the elusive void: from Aristotle who insisted that the vacuum was impossible, via...

'The most inspiring book I've ever read' Bill Gates, 2017'A brilliant, mind-altering book ... Everyone should read this astonishing book' Guardian'Will change the way you see the world' Daily MailShortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize 2012Wasn't the...

As a diarist I have chronicled the time through which I have lived in meticulous detail: but all that is history. What matters now is the future for those who will live through it.The past is the past but there may be lessons to be learned which could...

'Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure.' In The Theory of the Leisure Class Thorstein Veblen sets out 'to discuss the place and value of the leisure class as an economic factor in modern life'...

This fascinating story of madness reveals the radically different perceptions of madness and approaches to its treatment, from antiquity to the present day. Roy Porter explores what we really mean by 'madness', covering an enormous range of topics...

Selected as one of the Sunday Times best gardening books of 2023Discover the lavish beauty and fascinating history of the 40 most important and inspiring botanic gardens from across the globe.From the Renaissance gardens of Italy to the futuristic...

A Brief History of South Africa is an introduction to South African history from the earliest times to the Mandela Presidency. Using both a narrative chronology and thematic chapters, the book encourages critical thinking about how history shaped South...

A spirited and thought-provoking history of the vast changes that transformed Europe during the 1,000-year span of the Middle Ages The millennium between the breakup of the western Roman Empire and the Reformation was a long and hugely transformative...

The perfect Mother's Day gift - a compulsive collection of the world's most entertaining, inspiring and powerful letters with mothers at their heart, curated by the founder of the global phenomenon lettersofnote.comIn Letters of Note: Mothers, Shaun...

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...

When Joanna Wolfarth was pregnant with her first child, she assumed she would breastfeed, as her mother had fed her. Yet she was unprepared for the startling realities of new motherhood. Then, just four weeks after the birth, she found herself back in...

THE TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR*Shortlisted for the 2021 Financial Times and McKinsey & Company Business Book of the Year Award*'This unique and fascinating history explains why the blame now being piled upon meritocracy for many social ills is misplaced-and...

Born Elizabeth Jane Cochran, Nellie Bly was renowned as America's first 'girl stunt reporter'. She was a pioneer of investigative journalism, including an expose of patient treatment at a mental asylum and a travelogue from her record-breaking race...

Steven Johnson's Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software is a fascinating look at how self-organising systems are changing the world. Why do people cluster together in neighborhoods? How do internet communities spring up from...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780465060689Author Beverly Daniel TatumFormat PaperbackPage Count 464Imprint Basic Civitas BooksPublisher INGRAM PUBLISHER SERVICES USWeight(grams)...

Twenty years on from her critically acclaimed book, Northern Protestants: An Unsettled People, Susan McKay talks again to the people she 'uneasily' called 'her own', those from a Protestant background in Northern Ireland. Against the backdrop of...

This collection of writings is famous for giving us the phrase 'Freudian slip'. It also builds up a strong social history of Vienna and the middle-class social milieu of Freud and his patients. Through a series of case histories, some no longer than a...

A celebration of Ukraine's rich cultural heritage, drawing on over 100 of the country's most important works of art and architectural monuments from prehistory to the present. Showcasing more than one hundred objects and buildings - from Byzantine icons...

'A gold mine of gossip with a cast of thousands' GUARDIANThe unexpurgated diaries of one of the greatest, most talented, and wittily flamboyant characters of the 20th century - with a new introduction by Stephen Fry'Compulsive reading' SUNDAY TIMES'19th...