A large-format, lavishly illustrated book on 16 voyages of discovery that took place between 1714 and 1854 by the famous (Lap?rouse, Bougainville et Dumont d'Urville) and the less so (La Ba... read more
Essays on cultural and artistic exchange in the age of imperialism as European powers vied for domination of the oceanic routes between Asia and the Americas. Illustrated.
Unusual and interesting plants photographed and described in their natural habitats, often in very remote places - anyone remember the heady uplands of tulip and meadows of fritillary in Gar... read more
Over 40 years and many travels, the distinguished photographer has taken many pictures of children. A selection of them is gathered here for the first time.
The history of the world through the lens of the family, from a group walking along a beach 950,000 years ago to Caesars, Medicis, Bonapartes, Krupps, Assads, etc.
Many readers will remember Daniel Yergin's brilliant history of oil Prize, but that was 30 years ago and things look pretty different now. Here is the backdrop to Marriott & Macalister's sup... read more
After comparing the great emperors of antiquity, Lieven turns to the Habsburg, Russian, Ottoman, Mughal and Chinese emperors. Imperial in ambition and achievement.
We're very keen on this illustrated book on a few of the world's most interesting bookshops because it features Sandoe's, with some attempt by JdeF to describe what is distinctive about us.
Tracing the rise and spread of Buddhism from its roots, WD shows the dominance of Indian culture in the ancient and early medieval worlds. The author's customary grace, zest and elegance ren... read more
Contacts and connections as the drivers of cultural change: the West was built on far more than the values of ancient Greece and Rome, as per the Victorian paradigm. Erudite and compelling.
Forty of these remarkable horticultural institutions throughout the world, including Norway, Morocco, Kyoto, Kew, Brooklyn, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Malaysia...
Encompasses natural events and their consequences on a vast scale, showing how these have shaped human responses, trade, empires... Particularly trenchant as we try to understand climate cha... read more
An ambitious book that traces the collapse of empires and their ramifications in contemporary Eurasian geopolitics - in particular Iran, China, Turkey and Russia.
A fascinating exploration of the use of wood in human history: half a million years of tools, devices, construction, art and architecture, from wedges, planes, screws and pulleys to stave ch... read more
How, whether made on tally sticks or via electronic portal, systems of debt and credit have been a driving force in the development of states from Pisa in the C12th to the Bolshevik Revoluti... read more
Compiled from Dervla's books and journalism: fifty years of travelling in Spain, Afghanistan, India, Nepal, the Andes, Africa, Palestine, the Balkans, Jamaica... She never went by car and w... 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
Biotechnology is becoming big business, the stuff of both dreams and nightmares. Cobb is an eminently reasonable guide to this strange new world: gene-editing, cloning, GMOs, ethics, etc.
How we might stabilise climate change and repair habitats and the environment, in consultation with geophysicists, oceanographers and meteorologists, engineers, economists, mathematicians, h... read more
If Mrs T is what she eats, who is Mrs T? A long journey to understand how food is connected to place and national identity, how tradition and innovation create culture. Warm, knowledgeable a... read more
An engaging and idiosyncratic writer uses the machinations of the 1907 Peking-Paris car race as mirror to the geopolitical and technological changes which - not even a decade later - pitched... read more
A surprising story of obsession, necessity, invention and adventure. One could really turn the title around for ice has preserved human history as few other mediums have.