Social & Cultural History Books

From ambitious scientists rising above the clouds to analyse the air to war generals floating across enemy lines, Richard Holmes takes to the air in this heart-lifting history of pioneer balloonists. Falling Upwards asks why they …

Santiniketan-Sriniketan in India, Dartington Hall in England, Atarashiki Mura in Japan, the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man in France, the Bruderhof in Germany and Trabuco College in America: six experimental commu…

The Riviera Set is the story of the group of people who lived, partied, bed-hopped and politicked at the Chateau de l'Horizon near Cannes, over the course of forty years from the time when Coco Chanel made southern French tans fas…

A compelling history of catastrophes and their consequences, from 'the most brilliant British historian of his generation' (The Times) Disasters are inherently hard to predict. But when catastrophe strikes, we ought to be better p…

In Wild Grass, Pulitzer Prize-winning Ian Johnson describes a China caught between the desire for change percolating up from below and the ossified political structure above. He recounts the stories of three ordinary people who fi…

The first single-volume biography of Berlin, one of the world's great cities - told via twenty-one portraits, from medieval times to the twenty-first century. A city devastated by Allied bombs, divided by a Wall, then reunited and…

In September 2014 the wreck of a sailing vessel was discovered at the bottom of the sea in the frozen wastes of the Canadian arctic. It was broken at the stern and covered in a woolly coat of underwater vegetation. Its whereabouts…

A gripping and shocking insight into Russia's most influential oligarchs, including Roman Abramovich and Boris Berezovsky, from New York Times bestselling author of The Accidental Billionaires. To understand the state of Russia to…

A cult classic since its publication in the early years of this century, Caliban and the Witch is Silvia Federici's history of the body in the transition to capitalism. Moving from the peasant revolts of the late Middle Ages throu…

The measurement of time has always been essential to human civilization, from early Roman sundials to the advent of GPS. But while we have one eye on the time every day, are we aware of the power clocks have given governments, mil…

FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER THE ETYMOLOGICON. 'Reading The Horologicon in one sitting is very tempting' Roland White, Sunday Times. Mark Forsyth presents a delightfully eccentric day in the life of …

True crime meets local history. This book contains 39 true historical murders in West Cork. From Clonakilty in the east to the Beara Peninsula and the Kerry border, murder is never more than a few miles away. Each crime is complet…

Once upon a time in a Hertfordshire field, an ancient yew tree hid a dragon hunted by a giant named Piers Shonks. Today, the dragon and its slayer are the survivors of an 800-year battle between rural legend and national record, s…

In Ancient Rome all the best stories have one thing in common – murder. Romulus killed Remus to found the city, Caesar was assassinated to save the Republic, Caligula was butchered in the theatre, Claudius was poisoned at dinner.B…

The islands off the coast of Ireland have long been a source of fascination. Seen as repositories of an ancient Irish culture and the epitome of Irish romanticism, they have attracted generations of scholars, artists and filmmaker…

A SPECTATOR AND EVENING STANDARD BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020 This is the story of our love affair with books, whether we arrange them on our shelves, inhale their smell, scrawl in their margins or just curl up with them in bed. Taking u…

The perfect stocking filler for lovers of Irish Castles. A pocket-sized guide to around 140 of Ireland's most dramatic castles and strongholds, all of which are open to the public, with structures from across the whole island of I…

First published in 1895, St. Multose Church Kinsale: As it was, and is, and ought to be was the work of the then rector of Kinsale, the Rev. John Lindsey Darling. It used detailed architectural drawings, sketches and photographs t…

New York City, September 1960. Fidel Castro - champion of the oppressed, scourge of colonialism, and leftist revolutionary - arrives for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly. His visit to the UN represents a golden o…

Do you identify yourself by your profession or achievements, rather than your family network? Do you cultivate your unique attributes and goals? If so, perhaps you are WEIRD: raised in a society that is Western, Educated, Industri…

The National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery and the Royal Academy all saw either radical architectural interventions or rethinks of their mission under Charles Saumarez Smith's leadership, making him uniquely qualified to …

Why did the Romans never try to conquer Ireland? Why did the King of Spain give his name to an Irish county? And how did brandy change the course of Irish history? Turtle Bunbury explores unexpected corners of the past to offer an…

George Touchet, 11th Baron Audley and 1st Earl of Castlehaven was a leading English commander in the decisive Battle of Kinsale in which he was wounded. He later became one of Ireland’s largest landowners, possessing 200,000 acres…

A FINANCIAL TIMES, ECONOMIST AND NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020. In the years just before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall, people from across the political spectrum in Europe and America celebrated a great achievement, …

Chosen as a Book of the Year by The Times, Daily Telegraph, TLS, BBC History Magazine and Tablet. The Middle Ages were a time of wonder. They gave us the first universities, the first eyeglasses and the first mechanical clocks as …

Insiders call it 'the Craft'. To the rest of us, Freemasonry is mysterious and suspect.Yet its story is peopled by some of the most distinguished men of the last three centuries: Winston Churchill and Walt Disney; Wolfgang Mozart …

Lloyd George boasted that he had “murder by the throat” in a London Guildhall speech on 10 November 1920.  He had flooded Ireland with troops, Black and Tans, Auxiliaries, secret service, touts and informers.  Eighteen months late…

An unforgettable 3,000-year-old journey - from Mesopotamian clay tablets trying to predict the future, to Tudor book-hunters and Nazi bonfires, and on into the dangers of our increasingly digital existence, Burning the Books shows…

Ranging from the age of slavery to contemporary injustices, this groundbreaking history of race, gender and class inequality by the radical political activist Angela Davis offers an alternative view of female struggles for liberat…

For centuries, fame and fortune was to be found in the west - in the New World of the Americas. Today, it is the east which calls out to those in search of adventure and riches. The region stretching from eastern Europe and sweepi…