Non-Secondhand Books

Step into the mythical, magical realm of King Arthur...Uncover the legend of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table in intricate detail as you piece together his fabled...

Bletchley Park was where one of the war's most famous - and crucial - achievements was made: the cracking of Germany's 'Enigma' code in which its most important military communications...

The words Pax Augusta - or Pax Romana - evoke a period of uninterrupted peace across the vast Roman Empire. Lindsay Powell exposes this as a fallacy. Almost every year...

The 1st July 1916 was the blackest day in the history of the British Army when 60,000 unsuspecting men of the British 4th Army advanced into the teeth of a...

This book covers the inception, growth and employment of Britain's airborne forces (parachute and glider-borne formations) between June 1940 and March 1945. It takes a comparative approach and follows tailored...

. Gripping account of a little-known but crucial episode in World War IIOne of the biggest 'what if' moments of WWIIPuts a new perspective on Japan's military ambitions in WWII...

In this delightful book, scores of British soldiers tell their amazing stories of life - and death - in the front line of the Allies' advance from Normandy to Hitler's...

The purpose of this book is to produce what is essentially a 'home front' study of Ireland during the Crimean War, or more specifically Irish society's responses to that conflict....

'Gladiators and Beasthunts' is a comprehensive survey of arena sports in ancient Rome, focusing upon gladiatorial combat and the beast-hunts (venationes). Whilst numerous books have already been written on arena...

From the time of the Crimean War through the fall of the Tsar, the question of what to do about the Russian empire's large Muslim population was a highly contested...

The book tells the fascinating, compelling and tragic tale of Napoleon Bonaparte from his defeat at Waterloo, through the period of his abdication in Paris to his capture by the...

On 10 May 1940 the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), under the command of Lord Gort, moved forward from the Franco-Belgian border and took up positions along a 20-mile sector off...

In 1806 a British expeditionary force captured Buenos Aires. Over the next eighteen months, Britain was sucked into a costly campaign on the far side of the world. The Spaniards...

He became king before his first birthday, inheriting a vast empire from his military hero father; she was the daughter of a king without power, who made an unexpected marriage...

The ship was almost instantly in flames . . . Some jumped overboard immediately, and all was in indescribable confusion. The masts began to fall one after another, and it...

The Great War Diaries of Jim Maultsaid As the centenary of the Great War approaches, this book offers a unique perspective told in the words and illustrations of someone who...

These are the diaries of Gerald Achilles Burgoyne, wrote from the trenches just south of Ypres while he was with the Royal Irish Rifles in the Great War. The author's...

In this wide-ranging study of the Napoleonic regime, Digby Smith tracks Napoleon's rise to power, his stewardship of France from 1804 15, and his exile. He highlights his military mistakes,...

As heard on the New Yorker Radio Hour: The triumphant and "engaging history" (The New Yorker) of the young women who devised a winning strategy that defeated Nazi U-boats and...

This fascinating volume charts the progress of the Allied breakout of Normandy through German eyes. Beginning with Operation COBRA and ending with the offensive which led to the liberation of...

In London: The Autobiography the life of the capital is told, for the first time, by those who made it and saw it at first hand. From Roman times to...

In 1202, zealous western Christians gathered in Venice determined to liberate Jerusalem from the grip of Islam. But the crusaders never made it to the Holy Land. Steered forward by...

This book covers the inception, growth and employment of Britain's airborne forces (parachute and glider-borne formations) between June 1940 and March 1945. It takes a comparative approach and follows tailored...

Just who did the British think they were? For much of the last 1,500 years, when the British looked back to their origins they saw the looming mythological figure of...

In this delightful book, scores of British soldiers tell their amazing stories of life - and death - in the front line of the Allies' advance from Normandy to Hitler's...

In her fascinating new book, Pitman has written an enthralling micro history of Raphael's painting St. George and the Dragon--as well as the colorful rogue's gallery of historical characters who...

Winston Churchill had a longer and closer relationship with the Royal Navy than any British statesman in modern times, but his record as a naval strategist and custodian of the...

Known in some accounts as the Battle of Wijtschaete, the confrontation along the Ypres-Comines Canal in 1940 is still hardly remembered in this country and, apart from the battle honours...

A Spectator Best Book of the YearTrawling through a vast family archive and arcane sources in half a dozen languages, Adam Zamoyski has revealed the dramatic life of his great-great-great...

A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR'An absolute joy to read and an early contender for every list of History Books of the Year' Sunday Telegraph'On nearly every page a random...

'If a house could gossip, this is the book that Hampton Court would whisper. An enjoyable and readable stroll through 500 years of Hampton Court history: royal residents, common visitors,...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERFrom bestselling historian Saul David, a riveting new history of the British airborne experience across the Second World War. The legendary 'Red Devils' were among the finest...

This narrative history tells the story of the German occupation of Normandy (1940-44), and the Allied liberation. Following the fall of France in 1940, Normandy formed part of the Reich's...

Maximinus was a half-barbarian strongman 'of frightening appearance and colossal size' who could smash stones with his bare hands and pull fully laden wagons unaided. Such feats impressed the emperor...

The first Allied bombing raid on Berlin during the course of the Second World War, took place on 7 June 1940, when a French naval aircraft dropped 8 bombs on...

The year 2022 marks 2,500 years since Athens, the birthplace of democracy, fought off the mighty Persian Empire. This is the story of the three epic battles--Marathon, Thermopylae and Salamis--that...

Hugh Crow was the captain of a slave-trading vessel which made one of the last legal journeys across the Atlantic with its 'human cargo'. This is a highly engaging, rare,...

What was the nature of justice in Italian Fascist society? Through the lens of the case of Luigia Paulovich, a legal appeal filed against the Prefect of Trieste in 1931,...

The author relies to a great extent on contemporary accounts of a large number of British men - and women - who were unwittingly caught up in this appalling war....

This paperback edition of this seminal new study of a key battle of the Civil Wars re-examines one of England's most mysterious battlefields at Edgehill, and it combines the work...

Autumn 1536. Both Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn are dead. Henry VIII has married Jane Seymour, and still awaits his longed-for male heir. Disaffected conservatives in England may have...

A monumental work of history that reveals the Ottoman dynasty's important role in the emergence of early modern Europe The Ottomans have long been viewed as despots who conquered through...

This massive work provides a comprehensive insight to the experiences of Bomber Command's pilots and aircrew throughout WWII. From the early wartime years when the RAF's first attempts to avenge...

Exploring the gray zone of infiltration and subversion in which the Nazi and Communist parties sought to influence and undermine each other, this book offers a fresh perspective on the...

'Taking without taste, without choice, is ignorance and near vandalism.' - The French Directory to Napoleon Bonaparte, 1796 Napoleon's Plunder chronicles one of the most spectacular art appropriation campaigns in...

This volume forms part of the large international Theophrastus project started by Brill in 1992 and edited by W.W. Fortenbaugh and others. Together with volumes comprising the text and translations,...

'Louis Napoleon's story is certainly remarkable. Alan Strauss-Schom tells it with brio in The Shadow Emperor... This is a boldly revisionist biography... For all the corruption and repression that marked...

The glorious and infamous history of the Borgia family-a world of saints, corrupt popes, and depraved princes and poisoners-set against the golden age of the Italian Renaissance.The Borgia family have...