Social History

Until 1951 Nepal was closed to the world, landlocked between the strongest Asian powers, India and China. With its exceptional landscape, it touts the highest mountains and the greatest biodiversity on earth. It is best known as the home of Mt. Everest...

Winner of The PEN Hessell-Tiltman PrizeShortlisted for The Wolfson History PrizeA The Times Books of the YearA fascinating, surprising and often controversial examination of the real God of the Bible, in all his bodily, uncensored, scandalous forms.'One...

'This is one of the most gripping accounts of an era spanning war defeat, humiliation and failed revolution in 1918 to the violence, intimidation and propaganda of the Nazis' rise to power in 1933. It contains many lessons for the world now.' - John...

This rich and magisterial work traces Palestine's millennia-old heritage, uncovering cultures and societies of astounding depth and complexity that stretch back to the very beginnings of recorded history. Starting with the earliest references in...

The tenth anniversary edition of the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest: the search for the solution of how to calculate longitude and the unlikely triumph of an English genius. With a new Foreword by the celebrated astronaut Neil Armstrong...

*THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE**A TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES AND BBC HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR*'A bona fide historical classic' Sunday Times'Simply one of the best history books I have ever read' BBC HistoryIn the...

Imagination is about far more than whether people think of themselves as creative or not. We use our imagination all the time in planning, anticipating, daydreaming, reminiscing and being able to enjoy other people's stories. In fact, we don't live in...

A wonderful novel and perfect book club choice, The Right Stuff is a wildly vivid and entertaining chronicle of America's early space programme.WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY US ASTRONAUT SCOTT KELLY'What is it,' asks Tom Wolfe, 'that makes a man willing to sit...

Shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year Award 2024 Tim Hannigan undertakes an epic east-west journey on foot through his own homeland, from the woodlands of the Tamar Valley to the remote western region of Penwith. As he walks, he...

'Endlessly fascinating and full of surprises. Easily one of my books of the year' BILL BRYSONThe myth-busting science behind our modern attitudes to exercise: what our bodies really need, why it matters, and its effects on health and wellbeing. In...

The art of being a good husband is not an easy one. This little guide was written for the middle classes of the 1930s who were reading one of the first modern self-help books. Illustrated with contemporary line-drawings, it contains advice by turns...

"Five thousand years have now elapsed since the creation of the world, and still it is undecided whether or not there has even been an instance of the spirit of any person appearing after death. All argument is against it; but all belief is for it."...

Do you remember Beatlemania? Radio Caroline? Mods and Rockers? The very first miniskirts? Then the chances are you were born in the or around 1960.To the young people of today, the 1960s seems like another age. But for those who grew up in this decade,...

'His finest work and one that was both symptom and engine of the concept of "history from below" ... Here Levellers, Diggers, Ranters, Muggletonians, the early Quakers and others taking advantage of the collapse of censorship to bid for new kinds of...

Historically, women have been an integral part of spreading our Deen. They have contributed as mothers, wives, supporters, and defenders of our religion. This book allows the reader to take a glimpse into the lives of thirty-seven amazing women. Starting...

A beautiful new hardback anniversary edition of the multi-million copy sensationINCLUDES A NEW AFTERWORD FROM YUVAL NOAH HARARIWhat makes us brilliant? What makes us deadly? What makes us Sapiens?One of the world's preeminent historians and thinkers,...

The woman's place of power within each of us is neither white nor surface; it is dark, it is ancient, and it is deepThe revolutionary writings of Audre Lorde gave voice to those 'outside the circle of this society's definition of acceptable women'. ...

'Intriguing' - Sunday Times'A rousing read' - Irish Times'A bright light of Francophone feminism' - New York TimesRenowned journalist Mona Chollet recasts the witch as a powerful role model: an emblem of strength, free to exist beyond the narrow limits...

The first history of all the English cathedrals, from Birmingham and Bury St Edmunds to Worcester and York Minster England's sixty-two Anglican and Catholic cathedrals are some of our most iconic buildings, attracting millions of worshippers and...

London Labour and the London Poor originated in a series of newspaper articles written by the great journalist Henry Mayhew between 1849 and 1850. A dozen years later, it had grown into the fullest picture we have of labouring people in the world's...

'Quite simply, this book is a work of genius' Matthew Parris, SpectatorThe second in a major two-part anthology uncovering the rich reality of life for queer men in London, from the end of the Second World War to decriminalization in 1967In the 1940s, it...

'Rich and wonderful . . . This is the world as you've never seen it before' Ian Mortimer'A joyful, erudite book . . . A global Middle Ages for our times' Jerry Brotton'Wisdom fills the pages of this immensely entertaining history' The New...

THE TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLER***SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION******SHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH ACADEMY BOOK PRIZE******SHORTLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE***A Book of the YearThe Times * Sunday Times * Telegraph * New...

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2012Almost six hundred years ago, a short, genial man took a very old manuscript off a library shelf. With excitement, he saw what he had discovered and ordered it copied. The book was a miraculously surviving...

The classic investigation - inspiration for a major HBO series - revealing the true horror of Europe's racist colonial past in Africa. Over a quarter of a century ago historian Sven Lindqvist set out across Central Africa. Obsessed with a single line...

THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'Every time Churchill took to the airwaves it was as if he were injecting adrenaline-soaked courage directly into the British people ... Larson tells the story of how that feat was accomplished .....

Amsterdam is not just any city. Despite its relative size it has stood alongside its larger cousins - Paris, London, Berlin - and has influenced the modern world to a degree that few other cities have. Sweeping across the city's colourful thousand year...

In At Home, Bill Bryson applies the same irrepressible curiosity, irresistible wit, stylish prose and masterful storytelling that made A Short History of Nearly Everything one of the most lauded books of the last decade, and delivers one of the most...

Unrivalled in scope and brimming with human drama, A People's Tragedy is the most vivid, moving and comprehensive history of the Russian Revolution available today.'A modern masterpiece' Andrew MarrOpening with a panorama of Russian society, from the...

Dominic Sandbrook's magnificent account of the late 1970s in Britain The late 1970s were Britain's years of strife and the good life. They saw inflation, riots, the peak of trade union power - and also the birth of home computers, the rise of the ready...

After 10 years of austerity, the 1950s saw rationing draw to an end. Gathered together in this colourful creation of over 1,000 products and images, The 1950s Scrapbook conjures up the life and times of the Coronation of Elizabeth II to the abundance of...

This achingly jawdropping book follows the evolution of dentistry throughout the world from the Bronze Age to the present day, presenting captivating and grim illustrations of the tools and techniques of dentistry through the ages. Organized...

Much of Peter Ackroyd's work has been concerned with the life and past of London but here, as a culmination, is his definitive account of the city. For him it is a living organism, with its own laws of growth and change, so London is a biography rather...

For anyone interested in the history of the Scottish people, in Scotland and North America, this book is essential reading. In Canada and the United States today there are tens of thousands of descendants of Highland Scots who left Lochaber around 1800...

An epic history of the 'other' Europe, a place of conflict and coexistence, of faith and folklore. 'Do not rush to bid farewell to eastern Europe until reading this book. Meticulously researched and beautifully written, this very personal story of the...

'One of the greatest codebreakers of the twentieth century' Suzannah Lipscomb An astounding story of codebreaking, personal sacrifice and a life lived in the shadows. The history of British codebreaking is often considered a men-only preserve, ignoring...

The dramatic story of Scotland - by charismatic television historian, Neil Oliver.Scotland is one of the oldest countries in the world with a vivid and diverse past. Yet the stories and figures that dominate Scottish history - tales of failure,...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERA beautiful book to connect us after such a challenging time.'Dark clouds were looming in the distance. We watched them gather, and we wondered... When will it come? How long will it last?' A monumental storm brings huge and...

A rich and vivid history of Britain's second city through the people who made it 'What Manchester thinks today, England thinks tomorrow.' Long before Manchester gave the world...

The history of policing in Britain is a considerably under-researched subject, and the advancement of women within that history even more so. This book seeks to fill that gap, by tracking the progress of women in policing - a story that is longer and...