Social History

'Buy my Dish of great Eeles, Any Old Iron take money for, Twelve Pence a Peck Oysters, Buy my fat Chickens, Fair Lemons & Oranges' Marcellus Laroon's 'The Cryes of the City of London drawne after the Life' presents, in seventy-four striking...

Gender, Family, and Politics is the first full-length, gender-inclusive study of the Howard family, one of the pre-eminent families of early-modern Britain. Most of the existing scholarship on this aristocratic dynasty's political operation during the...

A Daily Telegraph Book of the Year 2022'I can't tell you how refreshing it is in these polarised times to read a book on politics that doesn't have an axe to grind . . . an essential read.' The Sunday Times'Subtle, sophisticated . . . compellingly told ...

The Highland Clearances stands out as one of the most emotive chapters in the history of Scotland. This book traces the origins of the Clearances from the eighteenth century to their culmination in the crofting legislation of the 1880s. In considering...

In 1942 Missouri Pettway, newly suffering the loss of her husband, pieced together a quilt out of his old, worn work clothes. Nearly six decades later her daughter Arlonzia Pettway, approaching eighty at the time and a seasoned quiltmaker herself,...

The source of tremendous power and the focus of incredible devotion, throughout history notions of beauty have been integral to social life and culture. Each age has had its own standards: a gleaming white brow during the Renaissance, the black eyebrows...

In her own words, the life of the beautiful young model and dancer who helped to bring down the Tory government of Harold Macmillan - the 'Profumo Affair' remains the greatest political sex scandal in recent British history.Following Christine Keeler's...

Spanning the origins of the Earth to the outcome of the First World War, this is a brilliantly compelling account of the evolution of life and the development of the human race. Along the way, Wells considers such diverse subjects as the Neolithic era,...

SELECTED AS A 2018 SUMMER READ BY THE SUNDAY TIMES, OBSERVER, I-PAPER AND THE BIG ISSUE 'Enormously entertaining' SUNDAY TIMES 'Fascinating' NEW STATESMAN 'Excoriating, brilliant' ALI SMITH 'Enthralling' GUARDIAN 'My number one contributor when it...

In Letters of Note: Sex, Shaun Usher collects together some of the most noteworthy missives ever written on the subject, from euphemism-laden, flirtatious exchanges and desire-driven expressions of passion to sincere and thoughtful meditations on the...

A remarkable history with elements of both In the President's Secret Service and The Butler, The Residence offers an intimate account of the service staff of the White House, from the Kennedys to the Obamas. America's First Families are unknowable in...

Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall...these fictional masterpieces are all recognised as landmarks of English Literature. Still inspirational and challenging to readers today, upon release in the mid-nineteenth century they caused a...

Tracing developments from the classical period to the early industrial revolution and beyond, Anne Murcott provides us with an accessible and entertaining social history of food packaging. From tin cans, glass jars and bottles, plastic trays and...

Viking Identities is the first detailed archaeological study of Viking-Age Scandinavian-style female dress items from England. Based on primary archival and archaeological research, including the analysis of hundreds of recent metal-detector finds, it...

At its launch in 1948 the Morris Minor was an exciting and fresh concept, with radical engineering and daring 'American' styling. Morris Motors had given a young engineer named Alec Issigonis his first chance to head up a design team and, though he...

Ever since Pearl Jam first blasted onto the Seattle grunge scene three decades ago with their debut album, Ten, they have sold 85M+ albums, performed for hundreds of thousands of fans around the world, and have even been inducted into the Rock and Roll...

Step back into the ring and recapture the golden days of wrestling as we look back on the legendary action figures from the early 1990s. Check out the toy line that rocked the world, featuring wrestling legends such as Hulk Hogan, Rowdy Roddy Piper and...

Shortlisted for the An Post Irish Book Awards Irish-Published Book of the Year A TREASURE TROVE OF LETTERS TO AND FROM OUR NINE PRESIDENTS FROM 1938 TO THE PRESENT DAY With over 400 letters, memos, cards, telegrams, drawings, notes and photographs,...

This book will look at the phenomenon of celebrity hookers in the eighteenth century -all of them the subject of extraordinary press scrutiny and comment. They were the fashion icons of the age, and what they wore was copied and put on sale in the high...

A SPECTATOR AND EVENING STANDARD BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020'A joy. Each chapter instantly became my favourite' David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas'Wonderful' Lucy Mangan'The right book has a neverendingness, and so does the right bookshop.'This is the story...

A major new history of how democracy became the dominant political force in Europe in the second half of the twentieth centuryWhat happened in the years following World War II to create a democratic revolution in the western half of Europe? In Western...

With an original approach, this book chronicles every model and lists every chassis number ever produced by Alvis, one of the great British manufacturers. It details famous owners and drivers, notable number plates, and is illustrated with original...

'A delightfully quirky sturdy . . . [Flanders] is a meticulour historian with a taste for the offbeat; the story of the alphabet suits her well . . . Fascinating.' Sunday TimesOnce we've learned it as children, few of us think much of the alphabet and...

What is a grimoire? The word has a familiar ring to many people, particularly as a consequence of such popular television dramas as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Charmed. But few people are sure exactly what it means. Put simply, grimoires are books...

The extraordinary historical consequences of errors and fictional inventions.SERENDIPITIES is an iconoclastic, dazzlingly erudite and witty demonstration, by one of the world's most brilliant thinkers, of how myths and lunacies can produce historical...

'Astonishing ... enjoy its riches slowly, and savour every generous, erudite and undogmatic page' Boyd Tonkin, Financial Times'We English men have wits,' wrote the clergyman Ralph Lever in 1573, and, 'we have also framed unto ourselves a language...

A magisterial history of the greatest and most terrible event in history, from one of the finest historians of the Second World War. A book which shows the impact of war upon hundreds of millions of people around the world- soldiers, sailors and airmen;...

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2019 ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING'Davies's absorbing study serves up just enough sensationalism - and eccentricity - along with its serious inquiry' SUNDAY TIMES'[A] revealing account of the jail's 164-year history' DAILY...

Most humans contain between nine and twelve pints of blood. Here Rose George, who probably contains nine pints, tells nine different stories about the liquid that sustains us, discovering what it reveals about who we are. In Nepal, she meets girls...

Arriving at the great houses of 1920s London, fifteen-year-old Margaret's life in service was about to begin... As a kitchen maid - the lowest of the low - she entered an entirely new world; one of stoves to be blacked, vegetables to be scrubbed,...

'Fascinating ' Elizabeth Day'Finally, a book that is proving very therapeutic in these difficult times... Full of doubt, fear, anger and rueful comedy, they give the lie to the idea that the Brits maintained a stiff upper lip, but it's immensely...

'Compelling' Christopher Hart, The Sunday Times'A fascinating book' Daily Mail_______________________________________________________________We think of transplant surgery as one of the medical wonders of the modern world -- but it's a lot older than you...

Revealing a world of secret messages contained within a single petal.Floriography – the language of flowers – is the ancient art of encoding hidden messages in the type, colour and arrangement of plants, allowing individuals to express emotions and...

LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE'Alex Renton has done Britain a favour and written a brutally honest book about his family's involvement with slavery. Blood Legacy could change our frequently defensive national conversation about slavery/race'...

This authoritative and accessible guide to the British monarchy spans the Romano-British rulers of 55 BC to the present day House of Windsor. Generously illustrated with maps, photos, paintings, and genealogies, it contains a wealth of information on the...

Since its original publication in 1978, Delirious New York has attained mythic status. Back in print in a newly designed edition, this influential cultural, architectural, and social history of New York is even more popular, selling out its first...

'Scary but enlightening' - Christopher StoneMargaret Thatcher remains one of the United Kingdom's most polarising prime ministers. This provocative investigation sheds light on the secret, internal 'cold war' that she waged against 'the enemy within';...

The Snows of Yesteryear (1989) is Gregor von Rezzori's haunting evocation of his childhood in Czernowitz, in present-day Ukraine. Growing up after the First World War, Rezzori portrays a twilit world suspended between the dying ways of an imperial past...

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER'Silicon Valley needed a history lesson and Ferguson has provided it' Eric SchmidtMost history is about the people at the top of the towers of power. But what if the real action is in the social networks down below, in the...

From the Houses of Parliament to the Midland Hotel at St Pancras and Strawberry Hill House, Gothic Revival buildings are some of the most distinctive structures found in Britain. Far from a copy of medieval buildings, it was a style full of colour and...