History

Named a Best Book of 2022 by The New Yorker, Publishers Weekly, and NPRIn this genre-defying work of cultural history, the chief film critic of Slate places comedy legend and acclaimed filmmaker Buster Keaton’s unique creative...

Sir Stanley Wells is one of the world's greatest authorities on William Shakespeare. Here he brings a lifetime of learning and reflection to bear on some of the most tantalising questions about the poet and dramatist that there are. How did he...

8:15 am, August 6, 1945. Six miles above the city of Hiroshima, bomb day doors snapped open to release "Little Boy", a code-name for the world's first atomic bomb. In an instant thousands of lives were destroyed, while the city's buildings, books and...

Seven minutes past midnight on March 10, 1945, nearly 300 American B-29s thundered into the skies over Tokyo. Their payloads of incendiaries ignited a firestorm that reached up to 2,800 degrees, liquefying asphalt and vaporizing thousands; sixteen square...

“Illuminating.… An eloquent testament to a doomed city and its people.” —The Wall Street Journal In early 1945, General Douglas MacArthur prepared to reclaim Manila, America’s Pearl of the Orient, which had been...

First published in 1814, Werner's Nomenclature of Colours is a taxonomic guide to the colors of the natural world that has been cherished by artists and scientists for more than two centuries. This new edition brings the classic work back to...

We must consider that we shall be A City Upon a Hill, the eyes of all people upon us, John Winthrop told his Pilgrim community crossing the Atlantic to found the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Four centuries later, Americans are still building Cities Upon a...

Will our future imitate our past? "The purpose of this book is threefold: to explain what makes civilization civilization what it is; to show what we are in danger of losing in the event of collapse, and to point the way toward renewal." There is a...

The Financial Times Business Book of the Year, this epic account of the decades-long battle to control one of the world’s most critical resources—microchip technology—with the United States and China increasingly in fierce...

A chilling account of more than half a century of nuclear catastrophes, by the author of the “definitive” (Economist) Cold War history, Nuclear Folly. Almost 145,000 Americans fled their homes in and around Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in...

An Instant New York Times Bestseller“This book will change your sense of how grand the sweep of human history could be, where you fit into it, and how much you could do to change it for the better. It's as simple, and as ambitious, as...

WHAT IF... one man decided to answer all the unanswerable questions, using science.The Sunday Times-bestselling author and xkcd creator, Randall Munroe is here to provide the best answers yet to the important questions you probably never thought to ask...

From tide tables and moon phases to folklore and seasonal recipes, Lia Leendertz returns with the 2024 edition of the bestselling guide to the seasons The original and bestselling Almanac Reconnect with the seasons in Britain and Ireland with this...

The first account of the new Taliban—showing who they are, what they want, and how they differ from their predecessors Since the fall of Kabul in 2021, the Taliban have effective control of Afghanistan—a scenario few Western commentators...

It was the most brutal corporate restructuring in Wall Street history. The 2015 bankruptcy brawl for the storied casino giant, Caesars Entertainment, pitted brilliant and ruthless private equity legends against the world's most relentless hedge fund...

The story of Steve Schwarzman, Blackstone, and a financial revolution, King of Capital is the greatest untold success story on Wall Street. In King of Capital, David Carey and John Morris show how Blackstone (and other private equity...

The inside story of the epic turnaround of Ford Motor Company under the leadership of CEO Alan Mulally. At the end of 2008, Ford Motor Company was just months away from running out of cash. With the auto industry careening toward ruin, Congress...

Filled with fresh new research and never-before-seen photos, this updated edition of the definitive biography of Coco Chanel deepens our understanding of the history and legacy of the incredible woman who shaped modern fashion and created an empire of...

What do Bill Gates, Henry Ford, J. P. Morgan, Mary Kay Ash, and Walt Disney all have in common? Uncompromising vision, a willingness to take risks, and exceptional business acumen. Not only did these individuals amass great fortunes, they revolutionized...

The world's most popular products, from the iPhone to Google Search, were funded not by private companies, but the taxpayer.In this sharp and controversial international bestseller, an award-winning economist debunks the pervasive myth that the...