General & world history

Chasing the Moon: How America Beat Russia in the Space Race

In a world divided by the ideological struggles of the Cold War, the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement, more than one-fifth of the people on the planet paused to watch the live transmission of the Apollo 11 mission. To watch as humanity took a giant leap forward.

A companion book to the landmark documentary series on BBC TV.

Chastise: The Dambusters

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

A masterly history of the Dambusters raid from bestselling and critically acclaimed Max Hastings.

It All Adds Up: The Story of People and Mathematics

‘Fascinating … so enlightening that suddenly maths doesn’t seem so fearsome as it once did’ SIMON WINCHESTER

From Aristotle to Ada Lovelace: a brief history of the mathematical ideas that have forever changed the world and the everyday people and pioneers behind them. The story of our best invention yet.

Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama

The definitive account of Barack Obama’s life before he became the 44th president of the United States – the formative years, confluence of forces, and influential figures who helped shaped an extraordinary leader and his rise – from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Bearing the Cross.

The Prince Who Would Be King: The Life and Death of Henry Stuart

Henry Stuart’s life is the last great forgotten Jacobean tale. Shadowed by the gravity of the Thirty Years’ War and the huge changes taking place across Europe in seventeenth-century society, economy, politics and empire, his life was visually and verbally gorgeous.

NOW THE SUBJECT OF BBC2 DOCUMENTARY The Best King We Never Had

All the Money in the World: Film tie-in edition

Inspired by the fortunes and misfortunes of the Getty family, whose most extraordinary and troubled episode – the kidnap and ransom of grandson Paul Getty – is now a major motion picture, directed by Ridley Scott, from a screenplay written by David Scarpa and starring Michelle Williams, Christopher Plummer and Mark Wahlberg.

The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers

WINNER OF THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE

‘A brilliantly original book’ Financial Times

‘One of the masterpieces of modern historical writing’ Daily Telegraph

Paul Kennedy’s international bestseller is a sweeping account of five hundred years of fluctuating economic muscle and military might.

Ancient Wonderings: Journeys Into Prehistoric Britain: Unabridged edition

‘Intensely alive to the landscape; its pasts, people and creatures’ Robert Macfarlane

Take a journey into our ancient past. Explore a long-lost landscape and gradually discover the minds, beliefs and cultural practices of those souls who lived on these lands thousands of years before you.

Poland: A history

Adam Zamoyski first wrote his history of Poland two years before the collapse of the Soviet Union. This substantially revised and updated edition sets the Soviet era in the context of the rise, fall and remarkable rebirth of an indomitable nation.

The Men Who United the States

From bestselling author Simon Winchester, the extraordinary story of how America was united into a single nation.

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