History

This is a new verse translation of Lucretius's only known work, a didactic poem written in six books of hexameters. Melville's particularly literal translation of the use of metaphor is especially helpful to those looking at the text from a scientific or...

'That was how things stood in the city at the time. With no one in charge, murders were taking place almost every day and the elections could not be held.'Books 36-40 of the Roman History by Cassius Dio (born ca. 163 CE), covers 69-50 BCE, the last...

A gifted historian with an eye for the unexpected connection, Peter Frankopan’s new work is a wholly unique and provocative lesson in the intertwined dependencies of nature and humans throughout history, highlighting in vivid relief why climate...

'Your country needs you. Your world needs you. Your time is now.'Our politics is a mess. Leaders who can't or shouldn't be allowed to lead. Governments that lie, and seek to undermine our democratic values. Policies that serve the interests of the...

Sometimes we read something so fundamentally stirring that we find ourselves speechless in the face of so many tumbling thoughts. Caste is one of those books. Isabel Wilkerson is one of those writers. She reminds us that "we are responsible for our own...

In this compelling whodunnit, Elaine Dewar reads the science, follows the money, and connects the geopolitical interests to the spin. When the first TV newscast described a SARS-like flu affecting a distant Chinese metropolis, investigative journalist...

How insurgencies—enabled by digital devices and a vast information sphere—have mobilized millions of ordinary people around the world.In the words of economist and scholar Arnold Kling, Martin Gurri saw it coming. Technology has categorically...

The ancient Chinese military classic that is widely admired today by both military and business strategists—in a new translation, with new notes and commentary.For more than two thousand years, The Art of War has provided leaders with essential...

A revolutionary book from the stand-up mathematician that makes math fun again—now in paperback!Math is boring, says the mathematician and comedian Matt Parker. Part of the problem may be the way the subject is taught, but it's also true that we...

In his first book since the bestselling Fermat's Enigma, Simon Singh offers the first sweeping history of encryption, tracing its evolution and revealing the dramatic effects codes have had on wars, nations, and individual lives. From Mary, Queen of...

'I have a truly marvellous demonstration of this proposition which this margin is too narrow to contain.'It was with these words, written in the 1630s, that Pierre de Fermat intrigued and infuriated the mathematics community. For over 350 years, proving...

Popular math at its most entertaining and enlightening. "Zero is really something"-Washington Post.A New York Times Notable Book.The Babylonians invented it, the Greeks banned it, the Hindus worshiped it, and the Church used it to fend off heretics. Now...

From preeminent math personality and author of The Joy of x, a brilliant and endlessly appealing explanation of calculus—how it works and why it makes our lives immeasurably better.  Without calculus, we wouldn’t have cell phones,...

The story of the man who instigated the work that led to the internet—and shifted our understanding of what computers could be.Behind every great revolution is a vision, and behind perhaps the greatest revolution of our time is the vision of J.C.R...

A revised edition of a medieval masterpiece—the first narrative history written by a woman.Written between 1143 and 1153 by the daughter of Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, The Alexiad is one of the most popular and revealing primary...

One of the most controversial of all works to survive from ancient Rome, the Augustan History is our main source of information about the Roman emperors from 117 to 284 AD. Written in the late fourth century by an anonymous author, it is an enigmatic...

A Roman historian chronicles Rome on the brink of collapse.Ammianus Marcellinus was the last great Roman historian, and his writings rank alongside those of Livy and Tacitus. The Later Roman Empire chronicles a period of twenty-five years during...

WINNER of the 2019 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. Author of the New York Times 2023 "Notable Book" Crossings. Washington Post “50 Notable Works of Nonfiction”. Science News “Favorite Science Books of...

An evolutionary biologist tells the story of nature’s toxins and why we are attracted—and addicted—to them, in this “magisterial, fascinating, and gripping tour de force” (Neil Shubin). A deadly secret lurks within our spice...

Shortlisted for the 2023 Royal Society Science Book PrizeA structural engineer examines the seven most basic building blocks of engineering that have shaped the modern world.   Some of humanity’s mightiest engineering achievements are small in...