History

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...

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...

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...

A quippy and irreverent collection of illustrated profiles of the great American women who weren’t attractive, well-spoken, demure, or sinless enough to receive their rightful place in history, until now, from New York Times bestselling author...

The bestselling coauthor of The Moscow Rules and Argo tells her riveting, courageous story of being a female spy at the height of the Cold WarJonna Hiestand Mendez began her CIA career as a “contract wife” performing secretarial duties for...

An epic quest exposes hidden truths about Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, the recently discovered masterpiece that sold for $450 million—and might not be the real thing. In 2017, Leonardo da Vinci’s small oil painting...

For anyone who has ever gone to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or wishes they could go, this is the perfect book to explore the halls from your couch. Paired with a touching personal story full of heart, humor and humanity, this is an examination of the...

A WASHINGTON POST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION FINALIST • The New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice • A history and celebration of the many far-flung volunteers who helped define the English language, word by...

A riveting true story of a mother who fought back against the drug cartels in Mexico, pursuing her own brand of justice to avenge the kidnapping and murder of her daughter— from a global investigative correspondent for The New York Times“Azam...

Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, The Economist, Time, The New Republic, and the Financial Times.Immersive and gripping, an intimate story of a deadly accident outside Jerusalem that unravels a tangle of lives, loves, enmities, and...

Based on her own sweeping research, an award-winning Oxford history professor overturns the way the West thinks about itself, tracing its innovations and traditions to societies from all over the world and making the case that we are, and always have...

From one of our leading experts on disinformation, this inventive biography of the rogue WWII propagandist Sefton Delmer confronts hard questions about the nature of information war: what if you can't fight lies with truth? Can a propaganda war ever be...

From Andy Warhol's Brillo boxes to provocative dung-splattered madonnas, in today's art world many strange, even shocking, things are put on display. This often leads exasperated viewers to exclaim—is this really art? In this invaluable primer on...