World History Books

The brutal war launched by Israel on the Gaza Strip in in response to the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023, or Operations Swords of Iron to give it its official name, was a major landmark in the blood-soaked history of the Israeli-P…

The history of the world's most successful military alliance, from the wrecked Europe of 1945 to Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. As they signed NATO into being after World War II, its founders fervently believed that only if…

This rich and enjoyable book by the acclaimed author of Japan Story explores the many ways in which Asia has influenced Europe and North America over centuries of tangled, dynamic encountersFrom the time of the ancient Greeks onwa…

Motherland is a ground-breaking exploration of African culture and identity, told via Luke Pepera's journey through 500,000 years of history to connect with his extraordinary heritage. Pepera tackles the questions many people of A…

Lighthouse is packed with extraordinary stories of human innovation, desperate shipwrecks, builders defying the elements and heroic sea rescues. Through more than 350 gorgeous vintage images and historic details, Lighthouse brings…

The British empire was built on slavery, but it also pioneered abolition. It spread democracy, but it also seeded geopolitical instability.It devastated nature but it also gave birth to modern notions of environmentalism. In this …

The town of Bethlehem carries so many layers of meaning--some ancient, some mythical, some religious--that it feels like an unreal city, even to the people who call it home. Today, the city is hemmed in by a wall and surrounded by…

How the Mongol invasions of the Near East reshaped the balance of world power in the Middle Ages. For centuries, the Crusades have been central to the story of the medieval Near East, but these religious wars are only part of the …

Our world has innumerable boundaries, ranging from the obvious - like an ocean - to subtle differences in language or climate. Most of us cross invisible lines all the time, but don't stop to consider them. In Invisible Lines, geo…

For nearly a century the two most powerful nations on earth, Victorian Britain and Tsarist Russia, fought a secret war in the lonely passes and deserts of Central Asia. Those engaged in this shadowy struggle called it 'The Great G…

After the Second World War, new international rules heralded an age of human rights and self-determination. Supported by Britain, these unprecedented changes sought to end the scourge of colonialism. But how committed was Britain?…

We have long been taught to presume that modern global history began when the 'Old World' encountered the 'New', when Christopher Columbus 'discovered' America in 1492. But, as Caroline Dodds Pennock conclusively shows in this gro…

Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil and lithium. They built our world, and they will transform our future.These are the six most crucial substances in human history. They took us from the Dark Ages to the present day. They power our com…

The Bloody History of British Colonisation. For centuries, a small island nation cast a shadow across the world. The British Empire’s methods of expansion were often brutal, usually devastating. From Amritsar to Zululand, from the…

An indispensable guide to understanding the Israel–Palestine conflict, and how we might yet still find a way out of it. The devastation of 7 October 2023 and the horrors that followed astounded the world. But the Israel–Palestine …

A fascinating cartographic study of urban development, perfect for map and history lovers. The city, a concept nearly as old as history itself, is a paradox of human innovation and intervention, order and conflict. From ancient ci…

Fear has long been a driving force - perhaps the driving force - of world history: a coercive tool of power and a catalyst for radical change. Here, Robert Peckham traces its transformative role over a millennium, from fears of f…

In the wake of Brexit, Ian Morris chronicles the ten-thousand-year history of Britain's relationship to Europe as it has changed in the context of a globalizing world.When Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016, the 48 …

Inspired by the tales of Homer and his own ambitions of empire, Alexander the Great sketched the idea of a city onto the sparsely populated Egyptian coastline. He did not live to see Alexandria built, but his vision of a sparkling…

A Pipeline Runs Through It is a fresh, in-depth look at the social, economic, and geopolitical forces involved in our transition to the modern oil age. It tells an extraordinary origin story, from the pre-industrial history of pet…

In the Gaza Strip, growing up on land owned by his family for centuries, eleven-year-old Yousef is preoccupied by video games, school pranks, and meeting his father's impossibly high standards. Everything changes when the Second I…

In a captivating tour of cities famous and forgotten, acclaimed historian Ben Wilson tells the glorious, millennia-spanning story how urban living sparked humankind's greatest innovations. During the two hundred millennia of hum…

The American West, 1860-1890: years of broken promises, disillusionment, war and massacre. Beginning with the Long Walk of the Navajos and ending with the massacre of Sioux at Wounded Knee, this extraordinary book tells how the Am…

The Rest is History, a whistle-stop tour through the past – from Alexander the Great to Tolkien, the Wars of the Roses to Watergate. The nation’s favourite historians Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook take on the most curious mome…

In this revelatory book, Dr Jonathan Kennedy argues that germs have shaped humanity at every stage, from the first success of Homo sapiens over the equally intelligent Neanderthals to the fall of Rome and the rise of Islam.How did…

From the international bestselling author of The Silk Roads comes a major history of how a changing climate has dramatically shaped the development—and demise—of civilisations across time. When we think about history, we rarely pa…

The story of the pioneering anthropologists and their adventures among civilisations that were first thought of as being primitive and savage. What they discovered, however, would change the way we think about ourselves. In the la…

We have entered a new Cold War. The contest between America and China is global and unbridgeable, and it encompasses all major instruments of statecraft - economic, political and military.It has its tinder box: Taiwan. And both pr…

When Thomas Roe arrived in India in 1616 as James I’s first ambassador to the Mughal Empire, the English barely had a toehold in the subcontinent.Their understanding of South Asian trade and India was sketchy at best, and, to the …

The groundbreaking story of Nomadic peoples on the move across history. Tracing the epic paths of wanderers across twelve thousand years, acclaimed travel writer Anthony Sattin recovers the stories of tribes who lived beyond imper…