Historia & samhälle

The epic new history from the bestselling author of JERUSALEM - the intimate story of Russia's imperial dynasty

A guide to World War I. From disaster to victory, it captivates readers and gives an insight into life in the muddy trenches, and what it was like to be a soldier, along with a broader picture of the world-changing events that led to the start of the conflict.

The third edition of Contemporary Russia is fully revised to provide a comprehensive introduction to the society, politics and culture of one of the most important countries in global affairs today. The author details Russia's historical background as well as the nation's current concerns and distinctive features in this accessible analysis.

A towering history of the first Afghan War by bestselling historian William Dalrymple

The Arab world's greatest folk stories re-imagined by the acclaimed Lebanese novelist Hanan al-Shaykh, published to coincide with the world tour of a magnificent musical and theatrical production directed by Tim Supple

* A new book by the award-winnning sociologist Eva Illouz on modern love. * Sets out to explain why love is such a painful experience for many people - why we invest so much in the search for love and why it so often disappoints us.

Learn the Bible in 24 Hours is an ideal study aid to help you grasp the big picture of Scripture. Each chapter is designed for study in an hour or less.

Animal bones are one of the most abundant types of evidence found in archaeological sites dating from pre-historic times to the Middle Ages, and they can reveal a startling amount about the economy and way of life of people in the past.

In the past decades, the pressure to perfect and design our bodies has been unprecedented. Men are encouraged to surgically pump up their pecs, breast enhancement is a sweet sixteen birthday present in the suburbs of America. This book raises the fundamental questions about how we arrived here and proposes a fresh theory on how we became embodied.

Contains chapters that include Street Life, Earning a Living: Baker, Banker and Garum Maker (who ran the city), and The Pleasure of the Body: Food, Wine, Sex and Baths. This book offers an insight into the workings of a Roman town.

The brilliant first book from the number one bestselling author of The Psychopath Test.

Examines the basis of story telling in literature, film, and libretto. This book provides an answer to the riddle of whether there are only a small number of 'basic stories' in the world. Using many examples, it shows that there are seven archetypal themes.The author then leads us through the changes in the nature of storytelling.

When The Culture of Narcissism was first published, it was clear that Christopher Lasch had identified something important: what was happening to American society in the wake of the decline of the family over the last century.

Gregory Bateson was a philosopher, anthropologist, photographer, naturalist and poet, as well as the husband and collaborator of Margaret Mead. This anthology of his major work contains a foreword by his daughter Mary Katherine Bateson.

History Of Western Philosophy was published in 1946. A dazzlingly ambitious project, it remains unchallenged to this day as the ultimate introduction to Western philosophy.

The sensational sequel to 'Papillon'.

A story of a flower that has made men mad. This book tells how the tulip arrived from Turkey and took the whole of Western Europe by storm. Illustrated from a range of sources, it also features descriptions of eighty wild-species tulips and several hundred garden varieties.

Rejecting the view that anyone has a natural right to wield authority over others, this title argues instead for a pact, or 'social contract', that should exist between the citizens of a state and that should be the source of sovereign power. From this fundamental premise, it considers issues of liberty and law, as well as freedom and justice.

In the struggle for women's equality, there is one subject still shrouded in silence - women's compulsive pursuit of beauty.

Stimulating, succinct and accessible, the fully revised and updated fourth edition of this highly successful text offers a truly comprehensive introduction to the study of politics, written from an international perspective.

The selections made in this volume shed light on these esoteric doctrines revealing intimate conversations between Jesus and his Disciples. The Gospel of Mary Magdalene throws new light on his relationship with this favourite disciple. The Gospel of Thomas contains concentrated mini-parables, containing deep inward and symbolic meaning, many of which are not found in the New Testament. The texts chosen are relevant to many of the perplexities of contemporary life and deal with the questions of good and evil, sin and suffering and the path to salvation.

Winner of the 2017 PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize.Winner of the Longman History Today Trustees' Award.A Waterstones.com History Book of the Year.Longlisted for the Orwell Prize.Shortlisted for the inaugural Jhalak Prize.In this vital re-examination of a shared history, historian and broadcaster David Olusoga tells the rich and revealing story of the long relationship between the British Isles and the people of Africa and the Caribbean. Drawing on new genealogical research, original records, and expert testimony, Black and British reaches back to Roman Britain, the medieval imagination, Elizabethan 'blackamoors' and the global slave-trading empire. It shows that the great industrial boom of the nineteenth century was built on American slavery, and that black Britons fought at Trafalgar and in the trenches of both World Wars. Black British history is woven into the cultural and economic histories of the nation. It is not a singular history, but one that belongs to us all.Unflinching, confronting taboos and revealing hitherto unknown scandals, Olusoga describes how the lives of black and white Britons have been entwined for centuries.