European history

In the seventeenth century most English households had gardens. These gardens were not merely ornamental, even the most elaborate and fashionable gardens had areas set aside for growing herbs, fruit, vegetables, and flowers for domestic...

Martin Lister, royal physician and fellow of the Royal Society, was an extraordinarily prolific natural historian with an expertise in shells and molluscs.Disappointed with the work of established artists, Lister decided to teach his daughters, Susanna...

Pronunciation governs our regional and social identity more powerfully than any other aspect of spoken language. No wonder, then, that it has attracted most attention from satirists. In this intriguing book, David Crystal shows how our feelings about...

In late medieval England, ordinary people, apothecaries and physicians gathered up practical medical tips for everyday use. While some were sensible herbal cures, many were weird and wonderful. This book selects some of the most revolting or remarkable...

Early manuscripts in the English language include religious works, plays, romances, poetry and songs, as well as charms, notebooks, science and medieval medicine. How did scribes choose to arrange the words and images on the page in each manuscript? How...

Based mainly on examples in the Bodleian Library, this lavishly illustrated account tells the story of manuscript production from the early Middle Ages to the high Renaissance. Each stage of production is described, from the preparation of the parchment,...

The 1917 Bolshevik Revolution irrevocably changed the course of history, with consequences still being felt a century later. This book offers a dramatic depiction of the chaotic events of the revolution, drawn from selected firsthand accounts. Assembling...

English spas have a long and steamy history, from the thermal baths of Aquae Sulis in Bath to the stews of Southwark, the elegant pump rooms of Cheltenham and Buxton to the Victorian mania for hydrotherapy and Turkish hammams.The Secret History of...

For the first six centuries from the institution's foundation, Latin was the language spoken and written at the University of Oxford. It's no surprise, then, to find that the inscriptions carved into the monuments, colleges and municipal buildings of the...

From the tale of the goatherd whose animals became frisky on coffee berries to a duchess with a goblet of poisoned chocolate, this book, illustrated with eighteenth-century satirical cartoons and early advertisements, tells the extraordinary story of our...

Contrary to popular belief, the author of the first English dictionary is not Samuel Johnson, but Robert Cawdrey, who published his Table Alphabeticall in 1604 - nearly 150 years before Johnson's dictionary.Here is a real treat for lovers of English -...

Published to mark the 200th anniversary of Dickens's birth, this book celebrates the greatest of English novelists by illustrating some of his abiding preoccupations. Prompted by quotations from the novels and other writings, each themed chapter explores...

This entertaining little book veers from savage satire to idealized adoration, and offers a refreshingly irreverent overview of British rulers all the way from Caesar to George, Prince of Wales, the future king.Henry Eighth from 1509 to 1547 - in his...

Shepherd Mead, bestselling author of How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, came to live in England with his family in 1958. Six years later he published a satirical handbook for fellow Americans to guide them through the nuances of British...

Ralph Ayres was head cook at New College in the 1770s. This book is a fascinating insight into the eighteenth-century kitchen, a period of great interest to social and culinary historians, and includes recipes for famous dishes such as Quaking Pudding,...

'Iceland's 1100 Years' recounts the history of a society on the margin of Europe as well as on the margin of reaching the size and wealth of a proper state. Iceland is unique among the European societies in being founded as late as the Viking Age, and in...

The history of the Latvian people begins some four and a half millennia ago with the arrival of the proto-Baltic Indo-Europeans to northern Europe. One branch of these migrants coalesced into a community which evolved a distinctive and remarkably robust...

Transnational Coupling in the Age of Nation Making during the 19th and 20th Centuries examines and compares courtship and marriage patterns that occurred between France and the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries. Departing from...

Black Vinyl White Powder is the definitive story of five decades of British Pop - now in paperbackWhether penning hits for Dusty Springfield, discovering Marc Bolan or managing a series of stellar acts ranging from the Yardbirds to Wham! - Simon...

From the author of Twitter's Medieval Death Bot comes Unfortunate Ends: On Murder and Misadventure in Medieval England, an illuminating collection of in-depth looks at the most interesting cases from medieval coroners' rolls.Thomas, son of Henry...