20th Century History

"I am a work in progress. There are times when I feel in control and like I know what I'm doing...and there are times (quite a few)(actually lots) when I've...

An important reckoning with Australia's unspoken history of slave trade. From the author of the bestselling books The Ballad of Abdul Wade and The Bravest Scout at Gallipoli As Australia...

FINALIST FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2025 'A brilliant personal account of China's borderlands and peoples' Francis Fukuyama 'Edward Wong is about as knowledgeable a guide to China as a reader...

*Shortlisted for the 2026 GORDON BURN PRIZE** 'Compelling, funny, intelligent . . . Thank You for Calling the Lesbian Line is a remarkable piece of work.' Kerry Hudson, Observer 'Utterly...

Hadley Freeman brings us her personalised guide to American movies from the 1980s - why they are brilliant, what they meant to her, and how they influenced movie-making forever. For...

In the eighteenth century, Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams greatly admired the Persian Empire, while Iranians regarded America as an ideal their own government might emulate. Beginning there, how...

First published in 1956, What Shall I Wear is revolutionary fashion designer Claire McCardell's collection of fashion wisdom and philosophy and a vivacious guide to looking effortlessly stylishClaire McCardell, the...

Yassou! unlocks the secrets of this flavourful cuisine, with eighty home-cooking Greek recipes that capture the delicious tastes and utilize the superfood ingredients that make the Mediterranean diet one with...

First time in Penguin Classics for this single-volume edition of Churchill's most famous speeches The most eloquent and expressive statesman of his time - phrases such as 'iron curtain', 'business...

First time in Modern Classics for Penelope Lively's evocative memoir of her childhood in Egypt. This autobiography is about growing up in Egypt. It is also an investigation into childhood...

The hilarious writing of James Thurber, author of 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty', collected in this classic anthology This collection brings together the best of James Thurber's brilliantly funny,...

When the Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944, they sent virtually the entire Jewish population to Auschwitz. A Hungarian Jew and a medical doctor, Dr. Miklos Nyiszli was spared from death...

Nobel Prize-winning author Canetti spent only a few weeks in Marrakesh, but it was a visit that would remain with him for the rest of his life. In The Voices...

A classic from the leader of the pop art movement - published to coincide with the opening of the exhibition Pop Art Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery (October 2007-February...

'This is a very personal book, about being alone and lost'. In 1975 Kapuscinski's employers sent him to Angola to cover the civil war that had broken out after independence....

Just after the iron curtain fell on Eastern Europe John Steinbeck and acclaimed war photographer, Robert Capa ventured into the Soviet Union to report for the New York Herald Tribune....

After his father's early death Jean-Paul Sartre was brought up at his grandfather's home in a world even then eighty years out of date. In Words Sartre recalls growing up...

A fierce and moving account of the genocide practised by the Spanish colonialists Bartolome de Las Casas was the first and fiercest critic of Spanish colonialism in the New World....

In his iconoclastic and controversial study, Norman G. Finkelstein moves from an interrogation of the place the Holocaust has come to occupy in global culture to a disturbing examination of...

In the Spring of 1993, federal agents raided the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. A 51-day standoff ensued. Known as the Waco Siege, it has become a founding myth...

Shortlisted for the Palestine Book Awards 2017 From the author of the bestselling study of the 1948 War of Independence comes an incisive look at the Occupied Territories, picking up...

THE SUNDAY TIMES No. 1 BESTSELLER WITH AN AFTERWORD BY JOHN LE CARR E 'Riveting, astounding . . . An unputdownable postwar thriller' Observer 'Irresistibly readable' Sunday Times 'Worthy of...

D-Day, 6 June 1944, the turning point of the Second World War, was a victory of arms. But it was also a triumph for a different kind of operation: one...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD 'Engrossing as any thriller' Daily Telegraph 'Superb. Meticulously researched, splendidly told, immensely entertaining' John le Carre 'This is the most amazing book, full of...

'A revolutionary book' Sunday Times 'A pulsating account' Peter Frankopan *A SPECTATOR AND NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR* How did the People's Republic of China transform from a backwater...

A 2022 BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR: Sunday Times * Irish Times * Spectator * Financial Times * Telegraph * Aspects of History 'The history book you need if you...

A New Statesman , Financial Times and Economist Book of the Year 'Brilliant' NEW STATESMAN , BOOKS OF THE YEAR 'Enlightening and a good read' SPECTATOR 'Moving and perceptive' NEW...

'This is a wonderful book, exhaustively researched, vigorously argued and teeming with the furious joy of seventeenth-century life' THE TIMES 'A brilliant, bloody account of England's most dramatic century ....

' Riveting. This highly readable and entertaining book ... finally sets the record straight on the history of the Koh-i-Noor ' Tarquin Hall, Sunday Times ' Dynamic, original and supremely...

'Addictive and deeply moving' Independent 'Utterly gripping' Anthony Beevor, Daily Telegraph 'Enthralling ... A reminder that heroism can be found in the most unlikely places' Evening Standard 'I have seldom...

THE TOP 5 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S BEST BOOKS OF 2019 THE TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR FINALIST FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE 2020 LONGLISTED FOR...

There is a myth that the long, dark days before punk were full of legions of British prog rock groups; that the likes of Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, Emerson Lake...

Diary of a Crisis explores the past tumultuous and traumatic year in Israel-Palestine. The eminent historian Saul Friedlander began a diary of Israeli politics in January 2023 as the country...

'Written in gorgeous, sparse prose, We Survived the Night reads like a novel. [...] A book I've been waiting my whole life to read.' Tommy Orange, author of There ThereAs...

From the bestselling author of The Miniaturist . Jessie Burton's Hidden Treasure is the phenomenal page-turning story of two children whose lives collide when they find an ancient treasure with...

Across the Mediterranean, from Spain to Morocco, via Italy, Sicily, Greece and Lebanon, one delicious food influence gives way to the next. The whole region is a rich seam of...

FROM BRITAIN'S TOP-SELLING TRUE CRIME WRITER WINNER OF THE CWA ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR: The Times/Sunday Times , Financial Times , Spectator ,...

WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 'A gripping and masterful portrait of the brutal court of Mao, based on new research but also written with great narrative verve' Simon Sebag...

The Short Story of Contemporary Art is a must-read introduction to this exciting and important period, from bestselling author and art historian Susie Hodge. This fascinating pocket guide explains the...

A WATERSTONES AND IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR A breathtaking history of Ukraine's war against Russia, by The Financial Times' Ukraine correspondent Christopher Miller 'Vivid... Shocking... [Miller] brings a...

A WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 "A brilliant exploration of Cyprus's long history of cultural resilience. Superbly composed." -- Guardian "Poetic...Compelling" -- New Statesman One of National Geographic 's...

To the colonized, the term 'research' is conflated with European colonialism; the ways in which academic research has been implicated in the throes of imperialism remains a painful memory. This...

The devastation of 7 October 2023 and the horrors that followed astounded the world. But the Israel-Palestine conflict didn't start on 7 October. It didn't start in 1967 either, when...

As the world's superpowers and corporations jostle for control in space, A. C. Grayling asks: who really owns our planet? 'Grayling brings satisfying order to daunting subjects.' STEVEN PINKER Silicon...

When the R101 first took to the skies, she was the largest aircraft ever to fly. What followed was a tragic finale to a tale of human folly on a...

In 1917, deep in the snowy mountains of occupied Korea, an impoverished local hunter on the brink of starvation saves a young Japanese officer from an attacking tiger. In an...

At the Israel America Council's national conference in 2018, Nancy Pelosi spoke these words: 'If this Capitol crumbled to the ground, the one thing that would remain is our commitment...

The updated edition of this classic treatise on the behavior of great powers takes a penetrating look at the question likely to dominate international relations in the twenty-first century: Can...