A characteristically particular and original look at social change from the author of the hugely successful Terms & Conditions: Life in Girls' Boarding Schools, 1939-1979 and others.
Brilliant detective work by this French paleoanthropologist, who has studied Neanderthal traces from the Arctic to the Mediterranean and argues that their intelligence was different from our... read more
Following High Minds, The Age of Decadence and Staring at God, this is the fourth in his series on the changing face of Britain. It covers the period 1919-1939.
The author is an archaeologist who can spin technical straw into narrative gold. Her previous book, River Kings, was on the Vikings - and it was riveting.
An account of the many Scots involved in Arctic exploration, including the search for the North-West Passage: in particular John Ross, James Clark Ross, John Richardson, John Rae and their h... read more
The pioneering struggle of early C20th women gardeners, who were excluded from the profession on account of their sex by such august bodies as the RHS. Fiona Davidson's previous book was The... read more
The final vol of the history that he began in 1990. A staggering achievement for anyone, but for someone with a pretty demanding day job (he was Justice of the Supreme Court), it seems stagg... read more
For all those who, in their heart of hearts, yearn to shoot backwards from the saddle with a compound bow, sitting astride an embroidered saddle rug, wearing tattered silk and a metal bonnet... read more
Although never the language of a state or ethnic group, Syriac remains widely used across the globe and is regarded as the third language of Christianity. It even reached China, thanks to th... read more
The long shadow of Ottoman rule: Mestyan argues that new local polities were based on recalibrated Ottoman structures rather than on European colonialism (with the exception of Palestine).
The great historian of late antiquity mixes the personal with the scholarly in telling the story of his life and work. Engagement with the non-European world has been intrinsic to his work.
A compelling account of the world's first empire, drawing extensively on recent discoveries in the field with the use of new archaeological techniques.
In a particularly elegant diplomatic gesture, the Caliph Harun al-Rashid sent an elephant to Aachen in 802 AD. This fresh perspective draws on many Arabic sources.
Where did refugees from the American and French Revolutions go? This remarkable historical perspective shows how opening doors can be more profitable than closing borders.
The daughter of Russian immigrants in Leeds, Simpson made it her life's mission to help academic refugees. During WW2 alone, she saved 16 future Nobel Prize winners, 74 future Fellows of the... read more
A lively account of the origins of the American Dream - an idea which Moore traces back across the Atlantic to the intellectual and political bustling of Enlightenment Britain.
9000BC years ago there were pastoral economies; by 3000BC the desert reasserted itself. A fascinating study of human adaptability in the face of early climate change and geophysical influenc... read more
Leadership and moral compromise in Occupied France, seen through the lens of P?tain's trial in 1945. Julian Jackson is superb on the French Occupation and his biography of de Gaulle was magi... read more
In less than a month in 1870, the Prussian army invaded France, captured Napoleon III and changed the balance of world power. Its success had far-reaching effects...