General and world history

How do you remember the seventies? Whether it's as the "Me Decade," the heatwave of 1976, or the Winter of Discontent, you'll find something in these pages to stir up nostalgia for the pop culture that defined the decade. Cinemas were showing...

‘Enlightening, moving’ SIR IAN MCKELLENFrom the acclaimed and bestselling biographer Jonathan Bate, a luminous new exploration of Shakespeare and how his themes can untangle comedy and tragedy, learning and loving in our modern lives. ‘The web of our...

Dazzling, poetic and vivid storytelling from one of Australia's greatest writers, which tells the bloody, brutal and enthralling story of the epic journey of the First Fleet. Originally published as a multi-part serial in The Australian, By Sea and...

‘Effervescent’ New Yorker Best Books Of 2022 So Far‘Bursts with colour and incident’ FT Best Books of Summer Read this prize-winning historian’s “immersive” ( New York Times) account of the famous writers who, in the run-up to World War II, took on...

‘An astonishingly readable and informative history of the greatest mathematical bestseller of all time … The writing is vivid and the stories are gripping. Highly recommended ’ IAN STEWART, AUTHOR OF SIGNIFICANT FIGURES Euclid’s Elements of Geometry was...

WINNER OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY BOOK PRIZE FOR GLOBAL CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING SHORTLISTED FOR THE PEN-HESSEL TILTMAN PRIZE 2021 LONGLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE 2021 ‘Helps re-centre how we look at the world’ PETER FRANKOPAN‘Global history at its...

The second book by the bestselling author of Extraordinary Insects Trees clean air and water; hoverflies and bees pollinate our crops; the kingfisher inspired the construction of high-speed trains. In Tapestries of Life, bestselling author Anne...

‘One of the non-fiction books of the year.’ Andrew O’ Hagan A powerful, evocative and deeply personal journey into the world of missing people When Francisco Garcia was just seven years old, his father, Christobal, left his family. Unemployed, addicted...

‘Fascinating… I loved this book; I really did’ David Crystal, SpectatorA biography of a much misunderstood punctuation mark and a call to arms in favour of clear expression and against stifling grammar rules. Cecelia Watson used to be obsessive about...

In 1914, despite being forbidden, many a Kiwi soldier's kitbag included a portable camera known as 'The Soldier's Kodak'. The images they recorded form the basis of this poignant collection of our soldiers from the First World War. In a major research...

Have you ever wondered what happened on your birthday hundreds of years ago This Day in History is perfect for history buffs and trivia fans alike. This fascinating book covers the most important, unknown, and bizarre events in history, including: the...

"GRIPPING. ... One of the greatest polar rescue efforts ever mounted." —Wall Street JournalThe riveting true story of the largest polar rescue mission in history: the desperate race to find the survivors of the glamorous Arctic...

‘Hugely readable and entertaining’ JIM AL-KHALILI‘An accessible and crystal-clear portrait of this discipline’s breadth, largely told through its history’ PHIL BALL, PHYSICS WORLD Einstein’s Fridge tells the story of how scientists uncovered the least...

Revised and updated version of the bestselling political biography of 2010. This edition contains some completely new content from Mr Howard, including his thoughts on the 2013 election campaigns. John Howard's autobiography, Lazarus Rising, is the...

In the tradition of Dava Sobel's ‘Longitude’ comes sailing expert David Barrie's compelling and dramatic tale of invention and discovery – an eloquent elegy to one of the most important navigational instruments ever created, and the daring mariners who...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERA masterly history of the Dambusters raid from bestselling and critically acclaimed Max Hastings. Operation Chastise was one of the most extraordinary episodes of the Second World War, yet it has also become one of the most...

A captivating true story that will speak to generations of Australians, from the author of Mezza Italiana.  'Nonno Anni gives me a nudge. "You know, when I first came to Australia, I knew that my life would change forever."' Leaving the small...

The Number One best-selling, epic true-life story of one of the most notorious maritime disasters of the 19th century, beautifully reissued alongside Philbrick’s new paperback, Sea of Glory. The sinking of the whaleship Essex by an enraged spermwhale in...

A new edition to mark the centenary Ernest Shackleton's epic 1916 journey across 1300 kms of hostile ocean in a tiny, leaking boat and unmapped ice and snow to reach a rescue station by British-Australian explorer Tim Jarvis,...

The third book from the most gifted young travel writer at work today, author of the best-selling In Xanadu (‘one of the best travel books produced in the last twenty years’ – Scotland on Sunday) and City of Djinns (‘the best travel book I have ever...

Australian life has never had a chronicler quite like the Vagabond. Renowned as journalist and 'eminently unconventional character', he suffered extremes of poverty and prosperity. These enabled him to record first-hand...

1860. An Aboriginal labourer named Jim Crow is led to the scaffold of the Maitland Gaol in colonial New South Wales. Among the onlookers is the Scotsman AS Hamilton, who will take bizarre steps in the aftermath of the execution to exhume this young man's...

This book brings together essays from leading Australian and international historians, in an analysis of the monumental Friendly Mission: the Tasmanian Journals and Papers of George Augustus Robinson 1829-1834, edited by NJB Plomley and republished in...

The archaeological assemblage from the Hyde Park Barracks is one of the largest, most comprehensive and best preserved collections of artefacts from any 19th-century institution in the world. Concealed for up to 160 years in the cavities between...

Caroline Leakey, writing as Olin Keese, published her first and only novel, The Broad Arrow, in 1859. It tells the story of Maida Gwynnham, a young middleclass woman lured into committing a forgery by her deceitful lover, Captain Norwell, and then...

Charles Dickens is little celebrated as a journalist, yet his career spanned nearly 40 years. Starting as a court reporter, parliamentary newspaper columnist and theatre critic, he developed an instinct for injustice, humbug and charade. For 20 years he...

Unique historical importance and modern appealSo far this year, the Mediterranean diet has been touted as able to lower your cholesterol, reduce pain, increase your lifespan, ease depression and 'cure' ADHD. Whatever the real story might be, it's clear...

Journal of a Tour of Discovery Across the Blue Mountains in New South Wales in the Year 1813 was first published in 1823. It is a romantic and descriptive narrative of the journey to find a path across the Blue Mountains and received a great reception...

'For the first time, fish became our companions and a corner of many a Victorian parlour was given over to housing tiny fragments of their world enclosed in glass.'The experience of seeing a fish swimming in a glass tank is one we take...

Recording Kastom brings readers into the heart of colonial Torres Strait and New Guinea through the journals of zoologist and anthropologist Alfred Haddon, who visited the islands in 1888 and 1898.Haddon's published reports of these trips were hugely...

Obaysch: A Hippopotamus in Victorian London is the story of Obaysch the hippopotamus, the first 'star' animal to be exhibited in the London Zoo. In 1850, a baby hippopotamus arrived on English shores, allegedly the first in Europe since the...

The natural resources of New Guinea and nearby islands have attracted outsiders for at least 5000 years: spices, aromatic woods and barks, resins, plumes, sea slugs, shells and pearls all brought traders from distant markets. Among the most sought-after...

Though there exist many biographical dictionaries of the achievements of Chinese people throughout history, few women feature. Since the mid-1980s, researchers from the University of Sydney's Department of Chinese Studies have been collecting the life...

Over the course of the 19th century a remarkable array of types appeared in Australian literature: the swagman, the larrikin, the colonial detective, the bushranger, the "currency lass", the squatter, and more. Some had a powerful influence on the...

Christina Stead set five of her novels in the United States, capturing and critiquing American life with uncanny sharpness. Yet her relationship with place and nation remains difficult to pin down: she resisted the label 'expatriate' and her books defy...

Throughout the 19th century, animals were integrated into staged scenarios of confrontation, ranging from lion acts in small cages to large-scale re-enactments of war. Initially presenting a handful of exotic animals, travelling menageries grew to...

In Every Mother's Son is Guilty, Chris Owen provides a compelling account of policing in the Kimberley district from 1882, when police were established in the district, until 1905 when Dr. Walter Roth's controversial Royal Commission into the treatment...

…Well dear Jim it breaks my heart to write this letter. Our dear [brother] was killed yesterday morning at 5.30. The bullet killed him instantly and he never spoke a word. I had just left him and gone down the trench to see the other lads when I was...

An awe-inspiring deep-dive into the treasures found on the sea floor and what they reveal about our past.A shipwreck is a time capsule. When a maritime archaeologist picks up an item from the seabed, there is a direct connection with history...

A riveting and illuminating exploration of the transatlantic slave trade by an intrepid team of divers seeking to reclaim the stories of their ancestors.“For me, Enslaved is an attempt to give a voice to the millions whose voices were...

The history books are full of heroes and villains … but what about all the idiots? Comedian and armchair historian Mikey Robins tells the astonishing story of human stupidity, one idiot at a time.Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity,...

'Edward Brooke-Hitching's delightful book is a collection of curiosities. From a 19th-century lonely hearts ad to a nuptial blessing of the bride’s buttocks, an entertaining history of love over the millennia that proves when it comes to the heart,...

Rollicking and informative, Reprehensible: Polite Histories of Bad Behaviour is your guide through some of the most shameful behaviour indulged in by humanity’s most celebrated figures, as told by Mikey Robins, one of Australia’s most loved comedians.It...

Uncover the mysteries of the past with this exciting, comprehensive guide on world history.History books are often filled with long descriptions, complex facts, and stories that can bore even the most enthusiastic history buffs. In World History 101...

Japan's Showa era began in 1926 when Emperor Hirohito took the throne and ending on his death in 1989 was the formative age of modern Japan. No doubt the most momentous, calamitous, successful and glamorous period in Japan's...

What is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)? What role is played by its members and partners? Does the largest military alliance ever to exist serve the cause of peace or the causes of weapons sales and war mongering? Published to coincide with...

Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, Evita and Juan Peron, Augusto Pinochet, and Pablo EscobarSoccer has been the world's most popular sport for the last century and an irresistible game for political and social leaders seeking shortcuts to the hearts of...