Collection: Adult Non Fiction - History

Stranded at Schiphol airport, Ben Coates called up a friendly Dutch girl he'd met some months earlier. He stayed for dinner. Actually, he stayed for good. In the first book to consider the hidden heart and history of the Netherlands from a modern perspective, the author explores the length and br...

Emerging from a collection of disparate city states 150 years ago, no other country has had as turbulent a history as Germany or enjoyed so much prosperity in such a short time frame. Today, as much of the world succumbs to authoritarianism and democracy is undermined from its heart, Germany stan...

Britain's key importance in world history was a product of its constitution and its empire, but both, in turn, were sustained and supported by Britain's role in achieving the first Industrial Revolution. In part this was a matter of coal and steam but far more was involved. Alongside the 'push' f...

Unimpeded by any landmass and flowing completely around the Earth, the mysterious Southern Ocean reaches from the seasonally shifting icy continent of Antarctica to the coastlines and islands of Australia, New Zealand, South America and South Africa. Weaving together ancient beliefs, sea captai...

Details the lives and deeds of some of the most extraordinary women in history. Trailblazers, hell-raisers and firebrands, these women showed a level of daring and disregard for traditional gender roles completely atypical of their time and culture. This collection features women like Njinga, gue...

At the dawn of the Cold War, the world's most important intelligence agencies - the Soviet KGB, the American CIA, and the British MI6- appeared to have clear-cut roles and a sense of rising importance in their respective countries. But when Kim Philby, head of MI6's Russian division and arguably...

Evan Osnos moved to Washington, DC, in 2013 after a decade away from the United States. While abroad, he often found himself making a case for America, urging the citizens of Egypt, Iraq or China to trust that even though America had made grave mistakes throughout its history, it aspired to some ...