Book cover of Empires of the Normans: Conquerors of Europe by Levi Roach
Europe

Empires of the Normans: Conquerors of Europe 

14th October 1066.

As Harold II, the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England, lay dying in Sussex, the Duke of Normandy was celebrating an unlikely victory. William “The Bastard” had emerged from interloper to successor of the Norman throne. He had survived the carnage of the Battle of Hastings and, two months later on Christmas day, he would be crowned king of England. No longer would Anglo-Saxons or Vikings rule England; this was now the age of the Normans. […Learn More]

Book cover of The Siege of Loyalty House: A Story of the English Civil War by Jessie Childs
Europe

The Siege of Loyalty House: A Story of the English Civil War

Between 1643 and 1645, Basing House in Hampshire, England, was besieged three times. To the parliamentary Roundheads, the house symbolized everything that was wrong with England: it was the largest private residence in the country, a bastion of royalism and excess. Its owner, the Marquess of Winchester, reportedly had the motto Love loyalty etched into the windows. Winchester refused all terms of surrender. When he discovered his brother plotting to betray the house, he forced him to hang his accomplices. When the garrison divided along religious lines, Winchester expelled all the Protestants. […Learn More]

Book cover of Between Light and Storm: How We Live with Other Species by Esther Woolfson
Biological Sciences

Between Light and Storm: How We Live with Other Species

A landmark examination of the fraught relationship between humans and animals, taking the reader from Genesis to climate change.

Beginning with the very origins of life on Earth, Woolfson considers prehistoric human-animal interaction and traces the millennia-long evolution of conceptions of the soul and conscience in relation to the animal kingdom, and the consequences of our belief in human superiority. […Learn More]

Book cover of How the Victorians Took Us to the Moon: The Story of the 19th-Century Innovators Who Forged Our Future by Iwan Rhys Morus
Computers & Technology

How the Victorians Took Us to the Moon: The Story of the 19th-Century Innovators Who Forged Our Future

The rich and fascinating history of the scientific revolution of the Victorian Era, leading to transformative advances in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

The Victorians invented the idea of the future. They saw it as an undiscovered country, one ripe for exploration and colonization. And to get us there, they created a new way of ordering and transforming nature, built on grand designs and the mass-mobilization of the resources of the British Empire. […Learn More]

Book cover of The War of Nerves: Inside the Cold War Mind by Martin Sixsmith
Biography & Autobiography

The War of Nerves: Inside the Cold War Mind

A major new history of the Cold War that explores the conflict through the minds of the people who lived through it.

More than any other conflict, the Cold War was fought on the battlefield of the human mind. And, nearly thirty years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, its legacy still endures—not only in our politics, but in our own thoughts and fears. […Learn More]

Book cover of Napolean: Soldier of Destiny by Michael Broers
Biography & Autobiography

Napoleon: Soldier of Destiny

All previous lives of Napoleon have relied more on the memoirs of others than on his own uncensored words. This is the first life of Napoleon, in any language, that makes full use of his newly released personal correspondence compiled by the Napoléon Foundation in Paris. All previous lives of Napoleon have relied more on the memoirs of others than on his own uncensored words.Michael Broers’ biography draws on the thoughts of Napoleon himself as his incomparable life unfolded. […Learn More]