History

This edition of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca's Relacion offers readers Rolena Adorno and Patrick Charles Pautz's celebrated translation of Cabeza de Vaca's account of the 1527 Panfilo de Narvaez expedition to North America. The dramatic narrative tells the...

The centuries between 800 and 300 BC saw an explosion of new religious concepts. Their emergence is second only to man's harnessing of fire in fundamentally transforming our understanding of what it is to be human. But why did Socrates, Buddha,...

Universal basic income. A 15-hour workweek. Open borders. Does it sound too good to be true? One of Europe's leading young thinkers shows how we can build an ideal world today."A more politically radical Malcolm Gladwell." — New York TimesAfter working...

A renowned economist's classic book on capitalism in the developing world, showing how property rights are the key to overcoming poverty"The hour of capitalism's greatest triumph," writes Hernando de Soto, "is, in the eyes of four-fifths of humanity, its...

Some five hundred years ago, Sandro Botticelli, a painter of humble origin, created works of unearthly beauty. A star of Florence’s art world, he was commissioned by a member of the city’s powerful Medici family to execute a near-impossible project: to...

"From the New York Times bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls comes the never-before-told story of a small cadre of influential female spies in the precarious early days of the CIA—women who helped create the template for cutting-edge espionage...

Featuring an all-new cover, New York Times bestseller Bill Bryson's irrevent and hilarious journey through the beloved island nation he called home for two decades. From Downing Street to Loch Ness, this is a delightful look at the United Kingdom...

Every time Bill Bryson walks out the door, memorable travel literature threatens to break out. This time in Australia.His previous excursion along the Appalachian Trail resulted in the sublime national bestseller A Walk in the Woods. In A Sunburned...

The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat"terrorism"in the Taliban’s backyardAnyone who despairs of the individual’s power to change lives has to read the story of Greg...

Karen Blixen's Out of Africa is the lyrical and luminous memoir of Kenya that launched a million tourist trails, beautifully repackaged as part of the Penguin Essentials range. 'I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills . . . Up in this high...

"The following year Qin unified all under Heaven and the title of August Emperor was immediately adopted."The short-lived Qin dynasty unified China in 221 BC and created an imperial legacy that lasted until 1911. The extraordinary story of the First...

Why the irrational exuberance of investors hasn't disappeared since the financial crisisIn this revised, updated, and expanded edition of his New York Times bestseller, Nobel Prize–winning economist Robert Shiller, who warned of both the tech and housing...

John Kenneth Galbraith's international bestseller The Affluent Society is a witty, graceful and devastating attack on some of our most cherished economic myths.As relevant today as when it was first published over forty years ago, this newly updated...

Throughout history, rich and poor countries alike have been lending, borrowing, crashing--and recovering--their way through an extraordinary range of financial crises. Each time, the experts have chimed, "this time is different"--claiming that the old...

In the universally acclaimed and award-winning The Bottom Billion, Paul Collier reveals that fifty failed states—home to the poorest one billion people on Earth—pose the central challenge of the developing world in the twenty-first century. The book...

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • An “urgently readable” (Newsweek) biography of the captivating tsar who changed Russian history—from the New York Times bestselling author of Nicholas and Alexandra, The Romanovs, and Catherine the Great“Enthralling . . . as...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An “absorbing” (Los Angeles Times) biography of one of the most remarkable, powerful, and captivating women in Russian history—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Peter the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra, and The...

A “magnificent and intimate” (Harper’s) modern classic of Russian history, the spellbinding story of the love that ended an empire—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Peter the Great, The Romanovs, and Catherine the Great“A moving, rich book . . ...

Cartography enthusiasts rejoice: the bestselling author of the Just My Type reveals the fascinating relationship between man and map.Simon Garfield’s Just My Type illuminated the world of fonts and made everyone take a stand on Comic Sans and care about...

"A witty, engaging narrative style…[Robb's] approach is particularly engrossing." —New York Times Book Review A narrative of exploration—full of strange landscapes and even stranger inhabitants—that explains the enduring fascination of France. While...