THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER / OVER A MILLION COPIES SOLD THE AMERICAN VICE PRESIDENT'S ORIGIN STORY ‘Essential reading for this moment in history’ New York Times 'You will not read a more important book about America this year' Economist ‘Brilliant … offers an acute insight into the reasons voters have put their tr...

A Sociology of Awkwardness shows how awkward feelings are the outcome of social interactions going wrong. Combing insights from cultural sociology and the sociologies of interactions and emotions, this book develops the first comprehensive sociology of awkwardness. It provides an understanding of how people define, ...

As China reclaims its position as a world power, Imperial Twilight looks back to tell the story of the country’s last age of ascendance and how it came to an end in the nineteenth-century Opium War. As one of the most potent turning points in the country’s modern history, the Opium War has since come to stand for ev...

At the turn of the twentieth century, the city of Tianjin was the diplomatic capital of the Middle Kingdom, where foreign consuls met Chinese dignitaries, and a hub of commerce and culture. Yet in the eyes of foreigners, the city remained provincial. After the tumult of the Boxer Rebellion, however, Tianjin transfor...

What does it mean to be cast outーnot just from society, but from your own conscience? In An Outcast of the Islands, Joseph Conrad explores the moral descent of Peter Willems, a corrupt European trader who flees to a remote Southeast Asian village after being disgraced. There, he finds a fragile peaceーuntil lust, a...

The original international woman of mystery, Mata Hari is maligned as a spy and a traitor. Having seduced a number of the most powerful men in Europe, she was accused of spying for both Allied and Central Powers during the First World War. Mata Hari's biography tells a different story. From her remarkable transforma...

This volume examines the higher-level discussions convened at Wilton Park, the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office’s policy forum, since its inception in 1946. Originally a ‘re-education’ camp after World War II in the principles and practice of democracy, Wilton Park has evolved into a first-class inte...

When historians discuss the great European empires of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Sweden is sometimes not included in their conversations. Despite this omission, Sweden amassed a wealthy, prosperous empire during these years. Their territory spanned several regions of Europe and even included colonies ...

20 Egyptian texts ー dating from c. 2400 BC to 250 BC ー on historical, religious, funereal, other topics printed in hieroglyphics together with transliterations and a complete vocabulary. Also included are full English translations of 8 of the texts. "The Tale of Two Brothers," "The Possessed Princess of Bekhten," ...

'Memorable... One of [China's] most astute and sensitive foreign observers' Financial Times 'Compassionate... full of warmth' Guardian More than twenty years after teaching English to China's first boom generation at a small college in Sichuan Province, Peter Hessler returned to teach the next generation. At the sam...

Subhas Chandra Bose was a revolutionary who sought Indian independence, but as many would contend, he ended up on the wrong side of history. In order to shake off the British yoke, Bose enlisted aid from Germany and Japan during World War II. This has led some to roundly condemn Bose as nothing more than a fascist c...

Delve into the rich tapestry of Mongolia's linguistic heritage with "Ancient Mongolian Languages and Scripts: Origins and Development." This comprehensive study offers an in-depth exploration of the evolution of the Mongolian language and its scripts, revealing how they are intricately linked to the cultural identit...

The political theories of Lenin have long outlived him, and have even gone on to outlive the Marxist state he help to found; the Soviet Union. The name Lenin still reverberates around the world, and yet "Lenin" is not even his real name. He was born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, the name Lenin was just the word he used t...

Hedy Lamarr was a rare kind of woman. She was not only a strikingly beautiful actress who took Hollywood by storm in the 1940s, but she was also an inventorーand not just any inventor. Hedy Lamarr's work with radio frequencies is credited with paving the way for Wi-Fi. It seems that the greatest bomb that this bombs...

The Renaissance is one of the most studied and celebrated eras of history. Spanning the end of the Middle Ages to the beginning of modernity, it has come to symbolise the transformative rebirth of knowledge, art, culture and political thought in Europe. And for the last two hundred years, historians have struggled t...

〓 Explore the fascinating and turbulent period of European history in The Dark Ages by Charles Oman. This comprehensive work delves into the formative years of the Middle Ages, spanning from the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 AD to the early medieval period in 918 AD. ✨ Oman masterfully chronicles the key events,...