Social Sciences

The day peace broke out. At 3 p.m. on 8 May 1945, Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a long-awaited speech in which he officially declared the war in Europe to...

'This forensic study of the Renaissance banking dynasty conjures up a world of art, literature, philosophy - and brutality' Telegraph 'Likely to become the standard work of reference on the...

Sparta - its legendary warriors and steadfast resilience are famous throughout the world as a model for toughness, justice and masculinity. The Spartans' reputation as fighters is matched only by...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER *Now with a fun pub quiz* 'An idiosyncratic ride through history' Independent 'Holland and Sandbrook have pretty much reinvented popular history for the modern age' The...

The International No. 1 Bestseller 'Cuts to the heart of who we are' Sunday Times 'A book that begs discussion' Vanity Fair All Lina wanted was to be desired. How...

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...

After spontaneously hosting a birthday pub crawl through London's finest alehouses, Thomas J. Vosper was inundated with requests from friends and family to make it a regular occurrence. And so,...

' A fascinating book about four women - it tells us so much about their world, and about our own... What jumps off the page is the liveliness of the...

This remarkable and monumental book at last provides a comprehensive answer to the age-old riddle of whether there are only a small number of 'basic stories' in the world. Using...

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...

Representations of Islam in United States Comics, 1880-1922 examines the depiction of Islam, Muslims, and the Islamic world in U.S. popular culture, particularly comics and related artifacts, between 1880 and...

How are soldiers made? Why do they fight? Re-imagining the study of armed forces and society, Barkawi examines the imperial and multinational armies that fought in Asia in the Second...

Algorithms are probably the most sophisticated tools that people have had at their disposal since the beginnings of human history. They have transformed science, industry, society. They upset the concepts...

'Lively . . . peppered with entertaining lines. One of [Low's] skills as a journalist is an ability to sift through mountains of archive material and pick out the gems'...

While historians have tended to accord the Celts a place of minor significance in comparison to the Romans, The Celts firmly aligns the Celtic peoples as the primary European precedent...

In Ancient Rome all the best stories have one thing in common - murder. Romulus killed Remus to found the city; Caesar was assassinated to save the Republic. Caligula was...

This innovative study of ethics in Meiji Japan (1868-1912) explores the intense struggle to define a common morality for the emerging nation-state. In the Social Darwinist atmosphere of the time,...

Ethnobotany of Pohnpei examines the relationship between plants, people, and traditional culture on Pohnpei, one of the four island members of the Federated States of Micronesia. It is the result...

#1 New York Times Bestseller In Being Mortal , bestselling author Atul Gawande tackles the hardest challenge of his profession: how medicine can not only improve life but also the...

Delve into this exploration of what it means to be Korean. South Korea is now an economic and technological superpower but how, as a country, did they rebound so quickly...

The way in which a society expresses grief can reveal how it views both intense emotions and public order. In thirteenth-century Italian communes, a conscious effort to change appropriate public...

"A fascinating and very original book, based on an enormous amount of primary research. Freed is a leading authority on the ministerials of the Holy Roman Empire, who kept their...

How do quantitative methods help us to acquire knowledge of the real world? What are the 'do's' and 'don'ts' of effective quantitative research? This refreshing and accessible book offers students...

This rich and magisterial work traces Palestine's millennia-old heritage, uncovering cultures and societies of astounding depth and complexity that stretch back to the very beginnings of recorded history. Starting with...

An empowering and gripping story of a pioneer of women's rights written by a critically-acclaimed writer and historian, for fans of Hallie Rubenhold, Hermione Lee and prize-winning Victorian histories. London,...

This book explores the significance of human behaviour to understanding the causes and impacts of changing climates and to assessing varied ways of responding to such changes. So far the...

The purpose of this text is to try to understand how Germany could attempt to exterminate its Jewish population during the Nazi period. Through individual stories, beginning with Moses Mendelsohn...

In this account of the origins and development of the RAF, the author offers evidence of its organization, strategy and preparedness for the Battle of Britain. Drawing on the facts...

From Jane Austen to Salman Rushdie, from Yeats to the media coverage of the Gulf War, this is an account of the roots of imperialism in European culture. While many...

As rancorous debates over Confederate symbols continue, Robert Bonner explores how the rebel flag gained its enormous power to inspire and repel. In the process, he shows how the Confederacy...

Readers interested in history, and in the development of the modern sensibility, will relish this large-scale yet intimately detailed examination of the blossoming of the ordinary and extraordinary people of...

Many westerners used to call the Soviet Union 'Russia'. Russians too regarded it as their country, but that did not mean they were entirely happy with it. In the end,...

Desert Lake is a book combining artistic, scientific and Indigenous views of a striking region of north-western Australia. Paruku is the place that white people call Lake Gregory. It is...

Loss is a permanent presence in all our lives. But is there too much suffering in the world - or just the right amount?Adam Phillips has been called the 'psychotherapist...

Examines cultural materialism in relation to earlier paradigms such as literary humanism and Marxism. This book places cultural materialism in relation to earlier paradigms such as literary humanism and Marxism,...

We listen to a cacophony of voices instructing us how to think and feel about nature, including our own bodies. The news media, wildlife documentaries, science magazines, and environmental NGOs...

In this major new book, leading cultural thinker Ien Ang engages with urgent questions of identity in an age of globalisation and diaspora. The starting point for Ang's discussion is...

When The Culture of Narcissism was first published in 1979, Christopher Lasch was hailed as a "biblical prophet" ( Time ). Lasch's identification of narcissism as not only an individual...

50th ANNIVERSARY EDITION - now a Virago Modern Classic with a new introduction by Alexandra Harris 'Full of dignity, courage and humour, and as fresh and insightful as the day...

In Australia we believe that we are clever - an innately inventive and original people. Yet in recent years an extraordinary pessimism has grown within the national psyche - that...

A fascinating exploration of why Hitler's death was only confirmed in 2018 Adolf Hitler has taken a long time to die, despite the lethal efficiency of the gun he put...

How can one European capital be responsible for most of the West's intellectual and cultural achievements in the twentieth century? Viennese ideas saturate the modern world. From California architecture to...

Groundbreaking research that utilizes archaeological discoveries and ancient texts to revolutionize our understanding of the beginnings of Judaism "A bravura study."- Publishers Weekly (starred review) Throughout much of history, the...

A thrilling exploration of what Romans thought about their emperors, and how rumors and gossip-ranging from new taxes to rulers' sex lives-shaped leadership Traversing more than seven hundred years of...

An absorbing history of Europe's nine most puzzling texts, including the biggest mystery of all: the Voynich Manuscript Books can change the world. They can influence, entertain, transport, and enlighten....

A definitive history of mescaline that explores its mind-altering effects across cultures, from ancient America to Western modernity Mescaline became a popular sensation in the mid-twentieth century through Aldous Huxley's...

This comprehensive exploration of language and literacy in the multi-lingual environment of Roman Palestine (c. 63 B.C.E. to 136 C.E.) is based on Michael Wise's extensive study of 145 Hebrew,...

An insightful, hugely engaging new history of elite women and the country house from the sixteenth to the twentieth century Grand houses can be found across the countryside of England...