Social History

The idea that 'home' is a special place, a separate place, a place where we can be our true selves, is so obvious to us today that we barely pause to think about it. But, as Judith Flanders shows in this revealing book, 'home' is a relatively new...

It was not so long ago that the belief in witchcraft was shared by members of all levels of society. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, diseases were feared by all, the infant mortality rate was high, and around one in six harvests was likely to...

This book discusses developments in the history of British house names from the earliest written evidence (Beowulf's Heorot) to the twentieth century. Chapters 1 and 2 track changes from medieval naming practices such as Ceolmundingchaga and...

A New Yorker staff writer, investigates his grandfather, a Nazi Party Chief, in this "unflinching, gorgeously written, and deeply moving exploration of morality, family, and war" Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Empire of Pain ...

Sir John Betjeman was born at the start of the twentieth century, and lived to become Poet Laureate, an accomplished writer and campaigner, and something of a national treasure. All his life he loved churches, which are woven into his poetic output. He...

THE PERFECT GIFT FOR ALL BIBLIOMANIACS A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, SPECTATOR AND DAILY MAIL A WATERSTONES BEST POPULAR SCIENCE BOOK Plunge into this rich and thought-provoking A-Z compendium to discover how our fixations...

This remarkable and monumental book at last provides a comprehensive answer to the age-old riddle of whether there are only a small number of 'basic stories' in the world. Using a wealth of examples, from ancient myths and folk tales via the plays...

Japanese mythology is filled with stories of larger-than-life characters that shaped the landscape of Japan. They are the folk heroes who slayed monsters, fought in epic battles and reflected the most complicated emotions of the people who created them...

**LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2024**'A classic ... wonderfully enjoyable' WILLIAM DALRYMPLEThis is the authoritative history of South Asia in the 20th century.Shadows at Noon tells the subcontinent's story from the British Raj...

BY THE WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR JOURNALISM 2023A powerful collection of journalism on race, racism and Black life and death from one of the nation's leading political voices.'An outstanding journalist and chronicler.' BERNARDINE EVARISTO'Fused with...

'Turner's seductive blend of political analysis, social reportage and cultural immersion puts him wonderfully at ease with his readers' David Kynaston 'Reading Alwyn Turner's account of life in the first two decades of the 21st century is a bit like...

Distilling a decade of research by leading experts on the Venerable Bede, Bede the scholar investigates the Northumbrian monk's place within the wider intellectual developments of the early medieval world. Demonstrating the centrality of the Bible to his...

'Football is a pleasure that hurts'This unashamedly emotional history of football is a homage to the romance and drama, spectacle and passion of a 'great pagan mass'. Through stories of superstition, heartbreak, tragedy, luck, heroes and villains, those...

*Winner of the PEN Ackerley Prize 2022*'This is family history at its best... the words fizz off the page and flutter in the mind' Sunday TimesIf you open that suitcase you'll never close it again.Ten years ago, Frances Stonor Saunders was handed an old...

This book reveals the impact of wartime and austerity on British fashion and tells the story of how a spirit of patriotism and make-do-and-mend unleashed a wave of new creativity among women who were starved of high fashion by shortages and rationing...

'There is more history in a bowl of pasta than in the Colosseum', writes Andreas Viestad in Dinner in Rome. From the table of a classic Roman restaurant, Viestad takes us on a fascinating culinary exploration of The Eternal City, and global civilization...

The oral history of Britain's first West Indian immigrants and their descendants In 1948 the former troop ship Windrush made the 30-day journey across the Atlantic from Jamaica. The arrival of its 500 passengers, the...

The nineteenth century was a time of unprecedented transformation, and nowhere was this more apparent than on the streets of London. In only a few decades, London grew from a Regency town to the biggest city the world had ever seen, with more than 6.5...

'Shamelessly engaging, effortlessly scholarly, utterly refreshing history of the Irish soul and its huge contribution to Western culture' Thomas KeneallyIreland played the central role in maintaining European culture when the dark ages settled on Europe...

'A masterpiece of social history' Daily MailThere is nothing quite as beautiful as an English country house in summer. And there has never been a summer quite like that Indian summer between the two world wars, a period of gentle decline in which the sun...

'A brilliant and revelatory book about the history of ideas' David Runciman 'Fascinating and important' Ruth Scurr The Enlightenment is popularly seen as the Age of Reason, a key moment in human history when ideals such as freedom, progress, natural...

From award-winning author Ariel Sabar comes the gripping, true story of a sensational religious forgery and the scandal that engulfed Harvard University. In 2012, Dr Karen King, a star professor at Harvard Divinity School, announced a blockbuster...

"When I went to medical school, I never dreamt, that as a doctor, one day the biggest contribution I would make to people's health, would be to hand out plastic sheets and blankets under armed guard." Moved by the devastating media coverage of the...

'Fizzes with clever vignettes and juicy tidbits... [a] joyous romp of a book.' Guardian'A fascinating, rollicking book in search of why, where and how fame strikes. Sit back and enjoy the ride.' Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads'[An] engaging and...

A WATERSTONES, TIMES, TELEGRAPH, NEW STATESMAN, SPECTATOR AND BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE BOOK OF THE YEAR The early sixties in Britain told as only David Kynaston ('the most entertaining historian alive' Spectator) can. Running from 1962 to 1965, A Northern...

From 1950 to 1962, John Richardson lived near Picasso in France and was a friend of the artist. With a view to writing a biography, the acclaimed art historian kept a diary of their meetings. After Picasso's death, his widow Jacqueline collaborated in...

The ground-breaking and bestselling group portrait of London today: a book as rich, dynamic, lively, and diverse as the city itself 'Epic' David Nicholls 'Electrifying' The Times 'This is a book to deepen your relationship with London and make...

Discover one of Twentieth-Century Russia's most lauded lost classics, now in a remarkable new translation.'Outstanding... A sparkling, supremely precious literary achievement' Telegraph'One of the great Russian autobiographies, as fresh now as the day it...

TRAVEL BACK IN TIME WITH THE BBC'S RUTH GOODMANWe know what life was like for Victoria and Albert. But what was it like for a commoner - like you or me?How did it feel to cook with coal and wash with tea leaves? Drink beer for breakfast and clean your...

From a foremost expert on the science of emotions, a ground-breaking exploration into the history, psychology and meaning of aweSocial psychologist Dacher Keltner has spent his career speaking to different groups of people, from schoolchildren to...

*A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK*The first book to tell the story of day-to-day life on the nuclear home front - from the host of #1 podcast Atomic Hobo'So entertaining' The Times 'Cracking' Sunday TelegraphThe atomic bombs of 1945 changed war forever...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE HESSELL-TILTMAN HISTORY PRIZE 2017AN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016Religious strife, civil conflict, waves of immigration, the rise and fall of industry, great prosperity and grinding poverty - the handful of streets that constitute...

A Sunday Times Book of the Week and Top 10 Bestseller A Waterstones Travel Book of the Year 2023 A Spectator Book of the Year 2023 What kind of country is England today? ...

'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...

In 1881, a writer in the Saturday Review called tattooing 'an art without a history'. 'No-one', it went on, 'has made it the business of his life to study the development of tattooing.' Until now. Painted People is a...

'A brilliant display of fireworks, attacking the widespread and banal notion that "in the beginning" sexual activity was guilt-free and delicious, being repressed and blighted only by the gloom of Victorianism' Spectator We talk about sex more and...

The seventies encompass strikes that brought down governments, shock general election results, the rise of Margaret Thatcher and the fall of Edward Heath, the IMF crisis, the Winter of Discontent and the three-day week. When the Lights Went Out goes in...

A Spectator Book of the Year 2020 A Times and Sunday Times Best Book of 2020 A Mail on Sunday Book of the Year 2020 'Inspired ... Lowe's sensitive, disturbing book should be...

WINNER OF THE PENDERYN MUSIC BOOK PRIZE 2018 In the 1950s and 1960s, Memphis, Tennessee, was the launch pad of musical pioneers such as Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Al Green and Isaac Hayes, and by 1968 was a city synonymous with soul...

'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...