History

"Rich and lively."—New York Times Book Review. A vibrant look at an unsettled and strangely familiar time that overturns our assumptions about the history of magic. Imagine: it's the year 1600 and you've lost your precious silver spoons, or maybe...

The story of the sixteenth-century’s epic contest for the spice trade, which propelled European maritime exploration and conquest across Asia and the Pacific. Spices drove the early modern world economy, and for Europeans they represented...

Inspired by original research and filled with color and drama, this is an exploration of two thousand years of history as seen through one the greatest imperial networks ever built."All roads lead to Rome” is a medieval proverb, but it's also true:...

The definitive story of the seven Cleopatras, the powerful goddess-queens of ancient Egypt.One of history’s most iconic figures, Cleopatra is rightly remembered as a clever and charismatic ruler. But few today realize that she was the last in a...

“Compelling.… [E]rudite, objective and immensely readable.” —Ben Hall, Financial Times.An authoritative history of Europe’s largest military conflict since World War II, from the New York Times best-selling author of The...

New York Times Bestseller. COVID-19 is speeding up history, but how? What is the shape of the world to come? Lenin once said, "There are decades when nothing happens and weeks when decades happen." This is one of those times when history has sped up. CNN...

WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE • NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • “Unforgettable . . . a book about Putin’s Russia that is unlike any other.”—Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Empire of Pain.From a Moscow...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • "How did our democracy go wrong? This extraordinary document ... is Applebaum's answer." —Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny.The Pulitzer Prize–winning historian explains, with electrifying clarity, why elites in...

Explore the places that time forgot. These abandoned, mysterious, sleeping monuments around the world have been relegated to the margins of history.From ancient ruins and crumbling castles to more recent relics – an art deco New York subway...

A New York Times Notable Book for 2011. Sometime around 1750, English entrepreneurs unleashed the astounding energies of steam and coal, and the world was forever changed. The emergence of factories, railroads, and gunboats propelled the West's rise to...

WINNER OF THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE. Paul Kennedy’s international bestseller is a sweeping account of five hundred years of fluctuating economic muscle and military might. Kennedy’s masterwork begins in the year 1500, at a time of various...

From the bestselling author of The Silk Roads comes an updated, timely, and visionary book about the dramatic and profound changes our world is undergoing right now—as seen from the perspective of the rising powers of the East.  "All...

A “fun” and “unexpected” (The Economist) global tour of the world’s greatest games and the mathematics that underlies them Where should you move first in Connect 4? What is the best property in Monopoly? And how can pi...

From the incomparable Michael Lewis (Moneyball, The Big Short) comes the wild and still ongoing story of Sam Bankman-Fried and the world of cryptocurrency. This is as much a character portrait as it is an exploration of a pocket of the financial industry...

From James D. Hornfischer, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Stand of the Tin Can Soldiers, a riveting account of the life of WWII hero Commander Ernest E. Evans and his heroics and sacrifice during the Leyte Gulf Battle of...

This is Piketty at his most optimistic and succinct, in what could be considered a conclusion to his magisterial trilogy on equality. While his previous books have explained why inequality persists, here he reminds us, in a bit of welcome news, that...

The definitive edition of Foucault's articles, interviews, and seminars.Few philosophers have had as strong an influence on the twentieth century as Michel Foucault. His work has affected the teaching of any number of disciplines and remains, twenty...

Written in political exile during the Second World War and first published in 1945, Karl Popper's The Open Society and Its Enemies is one of the most influential books of the twentieth century. Hailed by Bertrand Russell as a 'vigorous and profound...

“An intriguing amalgam of personal memoir, philosophical speculation, natural lore, cultural history, and art criticism.” —Los Angeles Times.From the award-winning author of Orwell's Roses, a stimulating exploration of wandering, being...

An authoritative new translation of Plato's The Republic by Christopher Rowe, with notes and an introduction. 'We set about founding the best city we could, because we could be confident that if it was good we would find justice in it' The Republic,...