Geschiedenis

A lively and entertaining cultural history of a supremely annoying intellectual viceIntellectuals have long provoked scorn and irritation, even downright aggression. Many learned individuals have cast such hostility as a badge of honor, a sign of envy, or a form of resistance to inconvenient truths. On Pedantry offers an altogether different perspective, revealing how the excessive use of learning has been a vice in Western culture since the days of Socrates. Taking readers from the academies of ancient Greece to today’s culture wars, Arnoud Visser explains why pretentious and punctilious learning has always annoyed us, painting vibrant portraits of some of the most intensely irritating intellectuals ever known, from devious sophists and bossy savantes to hypercritical theologians, dry-as-dust antiquarians, and know-it-all professors. He shows how criticisms of pedantry have typically been more about conduct than ideas, and he demonstrates how pedantry served as a weapon in the perennial struggle over ideas, social status, political authority, and belief. Shifting attention away from the self-proclaimed virtues of the learned to their less-than-flattering vice, Visser makes a bold and provocative contribution to the history of Western thought. Drawing on a wealth of sources ranging from satire and comedy to essays, sermons, and film, On Pedantry sheds critical light on why anti-intellectual views have gained renewed prominence today and serves as essential reading in an age of rising populism across the globe.

A glorious publication on the "saintly and excellent" Florentine friar and painter whose religious scenes exemplify Renaissance theories of perspective and humanism

After exploring the language of Gothic painting, the great Tuscan artist Fra Angelico enthusiastically took up the new principles of Renaissance art then emerging in Florence. This volume offers a thorough exploration of the extraordinary talent of this artist, bringing out his capacity for artistic innovation in the service of deep spiritual values.
The book also provides a comprehensive assessment of the current state of research on Angelico. Its scholarly significance is further reinforced by the unprecedented reunion of five altarpieces that have been dismantled over the centuries: the San Piero Martire Altarpiece, the San Domenico Altarpiece in Fiesole, the Compagnia di San Francesco Altarpiece in Santa Croce, the San Marco Altarpiece and the Perugia Altarpiece. While the main panels have stayed in Italy, the remaining elements are dispersed across museum collections worldwide. The volume includes critical essays, a study of the history of the Museum of San Marco and an analysis of Angelico's frescoes preserved in the Sala del Capitolo, the cloisters and the monastic cells. This is a definitive and indispensable work of reference on the artist.
Born in Vicchio di Mugello as Guido di Pietro, Fra Angelico (c. 1395–1455) joined the Dominican order as a mendicant friar. He painted several frescoes for the Convent of San Marco in Florence, including the Annunciation, and decorated Cosimo de Medici's personal room in the monastery. In his later years he was called to Rome to decorate chapels for Pope Eugene IV and then Pope Nicholas V. Of his life, Giorgio Vasari wrote: "it is impossible to bestow too much praise on this holy father, who was so humble and modest in all that he did and said and whose pictures were painted with such facility and piety."

An epic account of the decades-long battle to control the world's most critical resource – microchip technology

From one of our leading biographers and critics comes an exhilarating, landmark new look at Muriel Spark – shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2025.

VogueVogueChanel in VogueChanel in VoguePublished as two volumes in a slipcase, this high-end, large-format package is the perfect companion to bestselling Chanel books currently in print. The result is the definitive book on the fashion of Chanel as seen through the pages of the world’s most influential fashion magazine.

Ideale kennismaking met Overijssel: van regionale tradities tot nationale invloed.

This elegant box set invites readers into the heart of Japan’s most poetic season through a curated collection of woodblock prints by the great masters of ukiyo-e.

Presented in a luxurious two-volume slipcased set, this edition pairs timeless art with expert commentary in a format designed for reflection, appreciation, and beauty. The main volume showcases a selection of prints that capture Hanami (the appreciation of the fleeting wonder of spring): blossoming cherry trees, riverside picnics, moonlit gardens, and the quiet rituals of seasonal change.
Highlights include Hiroshige’s Plum Garden at Kameido and Cherry Blossoms in Full Bloom at Arashiyama, Hokusai’s Viewing Cherry Blossoms by the Sumida River, and Yoshitoshi’s elegant Yayoi from the series Flowers of the Twelve Months. The works unfold in a striking accordion format, allowing readers to experience them as immersive, panoramic compositions.
Alongside this visual journey, a separate booklet by Japan scholar Jocelyn Bouquillard provides insightful background on each image. Her commentary illuminates the symbolism, historical context, and enduring cultural meanings of spring in Japanese life and art, every page enriching the reader’s understanding with a deeper sense of connection.
Also featuring prints by artists such as Kyōsai and Kunisada, Spring in Japan is a tribute to the elegance and emotional resonance of Japanese printmaking. Perfect for lovers of Japanese aesthetics, collectors, or anyone drawn to the passing beauty of nature, this set offers a charming glimpse into a world where art, tradition, and the rhythms of the natural world are exquisitely entwined.

A major new history of revolutionary Iran, from the 1940s to the presentIran’s revolution in 1979 shook the world. The Pahlavi dynasty came crashing down, and the Islamic Republic rose in its place. But what led to this seismic event? How did the revolutionary movement gain such strength? And what has its legacy been for modern Iran?In this comprehensive history, Homa Katouzian explores Iran from the 1940s to the present, showing how the revolution came into being. From the chaos of oil nationalisation to the overthrow of Mosaddeq in 1953, through the revolutionary moment itself, to the resistance movements of contemporary Iran, the revolution has had long and lasting effects. We see the profound influence of US presidents and the ramifications of Saddam Hussein’s invasion in 1980. Crucially, Katouzian shows how the revolution constituted an uprising of the whole of Iranian society and was not a purely Islamic movement. This is an engaging account of an epochal event—one which continues to shape Iran to this day.

'A breathtaking glimpse at the margins of space history' Tim Peake 'A cosmic treasure trove' Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock 'A wonderful celebration of the creative power of spaceflight to transform the impossible into the infinitely possible' Nicole Stott A celebration of space exploration told through the visual imagination of great dreamers from the sixteenth century to the present day. The universe is alluring and mysterious. A place of wonder and terror. We know it’s under no obligation to make sense to us, and yet . . . Space Journal is a visual celebration of our perception of the cosmos, and our efforts to reach it, from the seventeenth century to the present day. Dallas Campbell weaves together priceless archival memorabilia, revolutionary experiments and spectacular scenes to map both real and potential encounters with our celestial backyard. From Galileo’s shopping list to speeches annotated in President John F. Kennedy’s own hand, from The War of the Worlds to Space Invaders, Campbell sets out the radical thinkers and doers who have launched us towards the final frontier.

A new history of painting as told through the eyes and hands-on insights of a practising artist. The first question that Lachlan Goudie asks himself when he sees a work of art is not ‘why’ it was created but ‘how’. For this book he poses that question of artworks created by the earliest humans to artists today, focusing on the technical inventions and turning points that at each stage have marked a new chapter in the history of art. Goudie knows from experience that masterpieces don’t emerge serenely from an artist’s studio. They are the result of a long tussle between dirty hands and crushed pigment, hog’s-hair brushes and linseed oil, rabbit-skin glue and pulverized chalk. Great paintings are always the product of a struggle involving artists and their materials, one that pushes the practitioner to the very limits of technical ability. The secrets of painting lie above all in the physical elements from which an image is crafted. The nature of these elements has changed over time and across continents. And as each generation of painters exploits the new material and technical innovations of their era, they transform the character of their work and help propel the course of art history. Goudie traces this story all the way back to the original ‘big bang’ in the story of art: the very first painting pigments, made from charcoal and minerals, that were used to paint extraordinary art on the walls of the caves at Chauvet 36,000 years ago. He goes on to explore the impact of numerous new inventions and discoveries over the centuries, including ink, fresco, egg tempera, oil paint, canvas, watercolour, gouache, impasto, tubes of manufactured oil paint, collage, household gloss, acrylic, digital media and AI. Each chapter focuses on a technical turning point as embodied in the work of particular artist, including Giotto, Artemisia Gentileschi, Alma Thomas, Anselm Kiefer, David Hockney and many more.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE AMERICAN LIBRARY IN PARIS BOOK AWARD 2025

'Strikingly accomplished . . . utterly compelling.' SUNDAY TIMES
'A masterpiece of biography.' DAILY TELEGRAPH
'A total joy to read.' SARAH BAKEWELL
'I feel like I've been waiting for this book my whole life.' SHEILA HETI

A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN:
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From the celebrated author of Square Haunting comes a biography as unconventional and surprising as the life it tells.

‘Think of the Bible and Homer think of Shakespeare and think of me,’ wrote Gertrude Stein in 1936. Admirers called her a genius, sceptics a charlatan: she remains one of the most confounding – and contested – writers of the twentieth century.

In this literary detective story, Francesca Wade delves into the creation of the Stein myth. We see her posing for Picasso’s portrait; at the centre of Bohemian Parisian life hosting the likes of Matisse and Hemingway; racing through the French countryside with her enigmatic companion Alice B. Toklas; dazzling American crowds on her sell-out tour for her sensational Autobiography – a veritable celebrity.

Yet Stein hoped to be remembered not for her personality but for her work. From her deathbed, she charged her partner with securing her place in literary history. How would her legend shift once it was Toklas’s turn to tell the stories – especially when uncomfortable aspects of their past emerged from the archive? Using astonishing never-before-seen material, Wade uncovers the origins of Stein's radical writing, and reveals new depths to the storied relationship which made it possible.

This is Gertrude Stein as she was when nobody was watching: captivating, complex and human.

Gangsters, geweld en politieke intrige: ‘Maffia’ van historicus Ryan Gingeras is een ontluisterende geschiedenis van de onderwereld.

The new Sunday Times bestseller from the Baillie Gifford-winning author of East West Street and The Ratline

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERNEW STATESMAN, ATLANTIC AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BOOK OF THE YEAR'A brilliant tale of greed, paranoia and hubris... a good place to start for anyone seeking to understand the current crisis' Financial Times'If you want to understand the turmoil in Gaza, Syria and beyond, the Iranian Revolution of 1979 is a good place to start' The Times'Excellent' Telegraph'Exceptional' New York TimesA spellbinding narrative history of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and its devastating consequences by the Sunday Times bestselling author of Lawrence in Arabia. Before the revolution, the Shah of Iran seemed invincible. The world watched in awe as he commanded a huge army and oversaw an economy awash with billions of dollars of oil revenues. The regime’s secret police had crushed communist opposition and the Shah appeared to have bought off the conservative Muslim clergy inside the country. On the international stage, Iran had become an invaluable ally to the West during the Cold War. But village streets spoke of a different country – people derided the Shah as an American lackey and blamed him for economic inequality, for spending recklessly on lavish parties and for ignoring the Muslim majority. When a volcanic religious revolution erupted, led by a fiery cleric named Ayatollah Khomeini, the Shah was forced off the throne and into exile. How did it all go so wrong?Brilliantly brought to life by the Sunday Times bestselling author Scott Anderson, this gripping behind-the-scenes narrative reveals how the Iranian Revolution was as world-shattering an event as the French and Russian revolutions, and how its repercussions are still felt around the world today. In the Middle East, in India, in Southeast Asia, and now in Europe and the United States, the hatred of economically-marginalized, religiously-fervent masses for a wealthy secular elite has led to violence and upheaval – and Iran was the template. 'Gripping... Anderson does an excellent job of narrating the extraordinary events of the revolution'Spectator'Told with clarity and directness. It is unlikely that a more authoritative account of this torrid period will ever be written'Observer'A sweeping, gripping book, one that makes past times and dead people (often weird, complex and evil) spring to life with its narrative verve and attention to detail... Riveting... Compelling'Wall Street Journal'Timely... a lively tale of palace intrigue'New Yorker'The most compelling account yet of the revolution in Iran... Outstanding'Eugene Rogan, author of The Fall of the Ottomans'Thrilling... the gold standard account of the Shah’s fall... An epic and heart-breaking tragedy'Azadeh Moaveni, author of Guest House for Young Widows‘A masterfully told account… A must-read’ Steve Coll, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Ghost Wars‘Delivers remarkable new insights into one of history’s least understood upheavals’ Kim Ghattas, author of Black Wave'Thrilling and fully authoritative' Azadeh Moaveni, award-winning author of Lipstick Jihad and Guest House for Young Widows'Important and riveting' Sebastian Junger, bestselling author of In My Time of Dying and Tribe

Historicus Odd Arne Westad beschrijft in 'De naderende storm' welke paralellen er zijn met de vooravond van de Eerste Wereldoorlog en hoe we een nieuwe wereldoorlog kunnen voorkomen.

'This book is Haywood’s crowning achievement. It is a delight just to leaf through the pages, feasting on the eye candy … a beauty to behold … a useful explanation of how, over the space of 500 years, Europe went from order to chaos and then back to a semblance of order. At a time when Europe is again in flux, this is an interesting and edifying tale about interlopers and the inevitability of change' Sunday Times Trace the tumultuous history of Europe during the Early Middle Ages through 90 specially commissioned maps and a authoritative narrative. Medieval Europe remains a mystery to many, yet the relative dearth of information about the period cannot mask its crucial importance in history. Often mischaracterized as a time of darkness and decline, the period from AD 476 to 1000 was marked by turmoil, rebirth and transformation. From the towering legacy of Constantine to the iron rule of Charlemagne, and the Huns, Goths and Saxons to the Slavs, Franks, Vikings, Rus, Bulgars and Magyars, John Haywood brings to life the dynamic story of how a new Europe emerged from the ashes of the crumbling Roman Empire. We witness the spread of Christianity, the emergence of Islam, the rise and fall of kingdoms, and the birth of the leading nations of modern Europe. This is not a tale of decline, but a saga of endurance, reinvention and remarkable strength.

A first-of-its-kind guide to pairing wine with foods from Africa and beyond, including a tour of wine regions across the globe and a foreword by Stephen Satterfield, from renowned Certified Sommelier Cha McCoy.

The wine world often says food and wine that grow together, go together, and that spicy, tangy, salty, and sweet flavors are a challenge to pair. But what about foods from regions where wine grapes aren’t prevalent? What about global cuisines—many of which are outside of Europe—that celebrate heat and tang? Don’t these traditional foods deserve the perfect wine pairing? Cha McCoy, Certified Sommelier and owner of The Communion wine boutique, knows that good foods and wines go together and that the cuisines of Africa, Asia, and the Americas are just as worthy of great pours.

In this first-of-its-kind guidebook, Cha McCoy pairs wines with foods from Africa, Asia, and beyond, blending practical information with a side of aspirational armchair travel. Cha shares her journey of learning and connecting with deep culinary traditions and regional cuisines around the world, diving in by continent and then by region or country, from Africa to the Caribbean, from Latin America to the United States of America, and Asia, and exploring their winemaking regions.

Throughout, you’ll see pairing lists and menus to easily find wines to savor with whatever food you’re craving, whether it’s Moroccan Tagine, Jamaican Jerk Chicken, Mexican Elote, Shrimp Po’ Boy, Peach Cobbler, or Pad Thai. Plus, you’ll find 25 recipes for global fare from renowned chefs and mixologists that represent the heritage of each destination, with food accompanied by suggested wine pairing, to complete the meal.

Whether you’re curious about what to eat on your next trip abroad, want to try out a local restaurant, or are looking to explore a new cuisine to cook at home, Wine Pairing for the People will not only guide you on what to eat but how to best highlight the flavor of your meals with successful pairings. Complete with a foreword by Stephen Satterfield, and stunning photographs, maps, and illustrations throughout, this groundbreaking book boldly declares: Wine is for everyone.

What do our gardens say about us?

Monty Don has spent many years travelling the world, from America to Japan, from Italy and the Adriatic to Spain and the Mediterranean, getting under the skin of a country through its gardens and gardening traditions. In British Gardens, he finally brings his focus to home, journeying from the northern tip of Scotland to the Cornish coast, seeking to understand what our gardens tell us about ourselves as a nation.

Encompassing historical gardens and public parks, mountains and seascapes, urban gardens and rural nurseries, glasshouses and community plots, each encounter is another link in a larger story of British identity: marks of ingenuity, eccentricity, and adaptation to changing environments. From Northumbria’s Alnwick Gardens and Beatrix Potter’s Lake District farmhouse to the rewilded walled garden on the Knepp Estate and the story of Britain’s first garden gnome, Monty’s account brings in an astonishing range of British experience.

Accompanied by a landmark five-part series on BBC2, and illustrated by stunning photography from Monty’s long-time collaborator Derry Moore, British Gardens is a definitive, and uniquely British, account of a nation like no other.

'Wolf Hall for the Ottoman Empire . . . History at its most gripping' Daily Telegraph on The Lion House

A ground-breaking, present-tense reconstruction of the life and world of one of the most consequential figures in world history, Suleyman the Magnificent, from the author of The Lion House

Chosen by The Times as one of the Best Books of 2025

‘A wonderful book – entrancing, addictive, full of effortless erudition’ Rory Stewart

Istanbul, 1538. The greatest of the Ottoman Sultans is at the pinnacle of world power, while his family and future are at the mercy of their own dynastic law: whichever of his five sons succeeds him must eventually kill all the others. So why not get a head start?

For the next fifteen years, as Suleyman the Magnificent and his terrifying pirate captain Barbarossa face down imperial enemies across two hemispheres, the self-fulfilling curse of the Ottomans gathers its own unstoppable momentum.

From the burning pyres of Paris to the rain-lashed mountains of Transylvania, from Buda to Basra, from Crimea to the coast of India, The Golden Throne is an intensely gripping yet entirely historical reconstruction of the life and world of the most feared and powerful man of the sixteenth century, revealing the price of succession and the terrible cost of success.

‘The pace, the language and the story-telling are simply magnificent’ Victoria Hislop

‘Thrilling entertainment created out of meticulously researched history’ Robert Peston

‘Mesmerizing, superb, impossible to put down' Simon Sebag Montefiore

'Wonderful and highly enjoyable' Margaret MacMillan

"Astonishing...Brings to life a thriving – and rather civilized – empire" - The Telegraph

"sparkles with energy, insight and passion... difficult to put down." Nicholas Morton, BBC History Magazine

Control the sea, and you control everything...a gripping tale of dynastic rivalry and innovation, from the author of the classic work Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World.

Genghis Khan built a formidable land empire, but he never crossed the sea. Yet by the time his grandson Kublai Khan had defeated the last vestiges of the Song empire and established the Yuan dynasty in 1279, the Mongols controlled the most powerful navy in the world. How did a nomad come to conquer China and master the sea? Based on ten years of research and a lifetime of immersion in Mongol culture and tradition, Emperor of the Seas brings this little-known story vibrantly to life.

Kublai Khan is one of history’s most fascinating characters. He brought Islamic mathematicians to his court, where they invented modern cartography and celestial measurement. He transformed the world’s largest land mass into a unified, diverse and economically progressive empire, introducing paper money. And, after bitter early setbacks, he transformed China into an outward looking sea-faring empire.

By the end of his reign, the Chinese were building and supplying remarkable ships to transport men, grain, and weapons over vast distances, of a size and dexterity that would be inconceivable in Europe for hundreds of years. Khan had come to a brilliant realization: control the sea, and you control everything.

A master storyteller with an unparalleled grasp of Mongol sources, Jack Weatherford shows how Chinese naval hegemony changed the world forever - revolutionizing world commerce and transforming tastes as far away as England and France.

Een briljante biografie over een van de meest dubieuze meesterbreinen uit de geschiedenis.

Historicus John Haywood brengt in zijn boek middeleeuws Europa kleurrijk in kaart.

In ‘Wereldreizigers’ verhaalt archeoloog Alexander van de Bunt de oergeschiedenis van Europa en brengt hiermee de vroege mensheid bijzonder dichtbij.

A Book of the Year in the Daily Telegraph and Economist LONGLISTED for the CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction 2026'This book reads like a spy novel' FINANICAL TIMES'Entertaining and vivid' OBSERVER–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-The astonishing story of the ten million books that were smuggled across the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.For almost five decades after the Second World War, Europe was divided by the longest and most heavily guarded border on earth. The Iron Curtain, a near-impenetrable barrier of wire and wall, tank traps, minefields, watchtowers and men with dogs, stretched for 4,300 miles from the Arctic to the Black Sea. No physical combat would take place along this frontier: the risk of nuclear annihilation was too high for that. Instead, the conflict would be fought in the psychological sphere. It was a battle for hearts, minds and intellects.No one understood this more clearly than George Minden, the head of a covert intelligence operation known as the ‘CIA books programme’, which aimed to win the Cold War with literature.From its Manhattan headquarters, Minden’s global CIA ‘book club’ would infiltrate millions of banned titles into the Eastern Bloc, written by a vast and eclectic list of authors, including Hannah Arendt and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, George Orwell and Agatha Christie. Volumes were smuggled on trucks and aboard yachts, dropped from balloons, and hidden in the luggage of hundreds of thousands of individual travellers. Once inside Soviet bloc, each book would circulate secretly among dozens of like-minded readers, quietly turning them into dissidents. Latterly, underground print shops began to reproduce the books, too. By the late 1980s, illicit literature in Poland was so pervasive that the system of communist censorship broke down, and the Iron Curtain soon followed.Charlie English tells this true story of spycraft, smuggling and secret printing operations for the first time, highlighting the work of a handful of extraordinary people who risked their lives to stand up to the intellectual strait-jacket Stalin created. People like Miroslaw Chojecki, an underground Polish publisher who endured beatings, force-feeding and exile in service of this mission. And Minden, the CIA’s mastermind, who didn’t waver in his belief that truth, culture, and diversity of thought could help free the ‘captive nations’ of Eastern Europe. This is a story about the power of the printed word as a means of resistance and liberation. Books, it shows, can set you free.

Freedom Ship is a gripping history of stowaway slaves and the vessels that carried them to liberty. Up to 100,000 fugitives successfully fled the horrors of bondage in the American South. Many were ushered clandestinely northwards from safe house to safe house: know as the Underground Railway. Thousands of others escaped not by land, but by sea. Their dramatic tales of whispered conspiracy and billowing sails make Freedom Ship essential and enthralling reading.

Through the intricate riverways of the Carolinas to the banks of the Chesapeake Bay, Freedom Ship traces the freedom seekers who turned their sights to the sea. Sailaways regularly arrived in Britain on cotton ships from New York or Southern ports. For example, Moses Roper, one of the most determined runaways in American history, traveled 350 miles through slave country before eventually taking a ship named the Napoleon to Liverpool. Both legendary abolitionists Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman used the waterfront as a path to freedom.

Marcus Rediker puts his command of archival research on full display in this luminous portrait of the Atlantic seaboard as a place of conspiracy, mutiny and liberation.

PRAISE FOR THE SLAVE SHIP

‘I’m rereading The Slave Ship by Marcus Rediker, because it’s an absolutely fantastic book’
David Olusoga, Guardian

‘A truly magnificent book’
Sunday Telegraph

'A shockingly vivid work . . . from a gifted chronicler of history's lower decks, at home in the unruly Atlantic world of pirates, slavers, sailors, runaways and rebels'
Boyd Tonkin, Independent

Why did democracy emerge in ancient Greece? How did Spain conquer South and Central America? And what caused the fall of the Berlin Wall?

Part of DK’s indispensable Big Ideas series, this fully revised and updated new edition of The History Book answers these questions and many more.

The perfect introduction to the subject, it explores and explains everything from the origins of Homo Sapiens to the arrival of the internet, and from the French Revolution to the space race – through a combination of easy-to-follow explanations, innovative graphics, and intriguing quotes.

This fascinating new edition features:

• More than 90 of the most important events, milestones, and turning points in world history – from the agricultural revolution to WWI and WWII
• Simple explanations, bold infographics and step-by-step diagrams that untangle complex historical events, and witty illustrations
• Key quotes from major historical figures – from Julius Caesar to Barack Obama
• Eight pages of brand-new content, including entries on the Covid-19 pandemic, the Chinese Belt-and-Road initiative, the Capitol riots, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

A truly accessible and comprehensive introduction to an essential and engrossing subject, The History Book is perfect for anyone looking for the ultimate overview of world history.

The Big Ideas series

With more than 13 million copies sold across 130 countries and in 39 languages, DK’s award-winning Big Ideas series explores and explains a broad range of essential subjects with its innovative graphic and quote-led approach. The previous edition of The History Book has sold more than 600,000 copies worldwide. Other titles in the series include The Military History Book, The Politics Book and The Economics Book.

A compact, illustrated collection of Henri Matisse's insights into art and life. In addition to being a formidable artist, Henri Matisse (1869–1954) was a prolific letter writer and regular contributor to many publications. Following in the successful format of ‘The World According to …’ series, this anthology of quotations unites Matisse’s thoughts and artworks to construct a unique view of the world, as seen through the eyes of one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century. Covering topics ranging from fame – ‘An artist must never be … a prisoner of success’ – to war and occupation – ‘All is well here, but we see things that are hilarious and dreadful all at once’ – art – 'All colours sing together; they have the essential force of a choir' – and work – 'When you work to please other people, you achieve nothing' – The World According to Matisse paints a picture of a life as lively as it was rich. Beautifully designed and illustrated with works of art from throughout Matisse’s storied career, this is the perfect gift for art lovers everywhere.

Marcus Aurelius was een keizer met twee gezichten: pragmatisch en wreed. Anton van Hooff plaatst hem in de context van zijn culturele omgeving.

‘De Reformatie’ van Diarmaid MacCulloch is een meeslepende uiteenzetting over een cruciale episode in de Europese geschiedenis. Onmisbaar voor wie het Europa van nu wil begrijpen.

‘Brilliant’ – The Times

‘Hugely informative and entertaining’ – New Scientist

‘Put this at the head of your reading lists immediately’ – Eric Idle

From Royal Society Science Book Prize winner Henry Gee, a thrilling and thought-provoking account of the rise and fall of humankind.

For the first time in over ten millennia, the rate of human population growth is slowing down. The global population is forecast to begin declining in the second half of this century, and in 10,000 years’ time our species will likely be extinct.

In The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire, Henry Gee shows how we arrived at this crucial moment in history, beginning his story deep in the palaeolithic past and charting our dramatic rise from one species of human among many to the most dominant animal ever to live on Earth.

But rapid climate change, a stagnating global economy, falling birth rates and an unexplainable decline in average human sperm count are combining to make our chances for longevity increasingly slim. There could be a way forward, but the launch window is narrow . . .

Drawing on a dazzling array of the latest scientific research, Gee tells the extraordinary story of humanity with characteristic warmth and wit, and suggests how our exceptional species might avoid its tragic fate.

‘Like Jared Diamond meets Arthur C. Clarke with a dash of Douglas Adams’ – Philip Ball, author of How Life Works

'THE GOLD STANDARD OF NARRATIVE HISTORY' - DAN SNOW

How could a barely literate peasant from Siberia determine the fate of the world? Undoubtedly, the so-called 'mad monk' Rasputin bewitched Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra. Yet their strange and scandalous relationship conceals a riddle , one that casts an intriguing light on the controversial 'great man' theory of history.

Rasputin was a devoted monarchist, not a revolutionary. He had no official position, no forces at his command. Nevertheless, he contributed more to the fall of the Romanov dynasty than any other individual. So demoralised was the Tsarist officer corps by stories of corruption, to say nothing of the rumours of his debauchery with the Empress - and even her daughters - that when the February Revolution broke out, not a sword was raised in defence of the regime.

Just as Rasputin cast a spell over the Romanovs, his legend has bewitched historians. More than a century later, we still fail to comprehend fully the collapse of the greatest autocracy on Earth. Was there any truth to the wild tales that brought down the empire? Or was his true legacy an unsettling lesson on the potency of myth?

A panoramic history of the arrival of the Stuarts, and how the reign of King James I saw England reach new corners of the globe.

A remarkable account of the terrible climax of the Second World War in AsiaA Telegraph Book of the Year 2025 'A short but quietly devastating book, in which Overy adds new perspectives to a subject that has often been approached from a narrowly American angle... Overy's book is a sombre reminder that the border between civilisation and savagery is wafer-thin.' - Philip Snow, Literary ReviewIn the closing months of the Second World War hundreds of thousands of Japanese, mostly civilians, died in a final outburst of violence from the air. American planes were beginning to run low on plausible targets when it was decided to use two atomic weapons in a final, terrible flourish to try to end the war. Richard Overy’s remarkable new book rethinks how we should regard this last stage of the war and the role of the bombing. This book explores the way in which the willingness to kill civilians and destroy cities became normalized in the course of a horrific war as moral concerns were blunted and scientists, airmen, and politicians followed a strategy of mass destruction they would never have endorsed before the war began. But it also engages with the new scholarship that shows how complex the effort to end the war was in Japan, where ‘surrender’ was entirely foreign to Japanese culture.

In ‘Gaza’ geeft historicus Jan-Auwke Diepenhorst een helder overzicht van de complexe geschiedenis van dit gebied.

Zaha Hadid (1950 - 2016) was a revolutionary architect. For years, she was widely acclaimed and won numerous prizes despite building practically nothing. Some even said her work was simply impossible to build. Yet, during the latter years of her life, Hadid’s daring visions became a reality, bringing a new and unique architectural language to cities and structures such as the Port House in Antwerp, the Al Janoub Stadium near Doha, Qatar, and the spectacular new airport terminal in Beijing.

By her untimely death in 2016, Hadid was firmly established among architecture’s finest elite, working on projects in Europe, China, the Middle East, and the United States. She was the first female architect to win both the Pritzker Prize for architecture and the prestigious RIBA Royal Gold Medal, with her long-time Partner Patrik Schumacher now the leader of Zaha Hadid Architects and in charge of many new projects.

Based on the massive TASCHEN monograph, this book is now available in an extensively updated and accessible edition covering Hadid’s complete works, including ongoing projects. With abundant photographs, in-depth sketches, and Hadid’s own drawings, the volume traces the evolution of her career, spanning not only her most pioneering buildings but also the furniture and interior designs that were integrated into her unique, and distinctly 21st-century, universe.

Een wervelende en persoonlijke geschiedenis over Amerika en Europa in turbulente tijden, vol dilemma's over democratie, economie en oorlog.

Een Tsjechische spion, een verloren identiteit en een moeder die haar zoon dacht terug te vinden. Dit waargebeurde verhaal onthult misleiding, verraad en een spionagezaak die Europa schokte.

'Superb and timely' KATE MOSSE
'Impressive, important, deeply moving' SARAH WATERS
'Brilliant' ANTHONY HOROWITZ

What role could music play in a death camp? What was the effect on those women who owed their survival to their participation in a Nazi propaganda project? And how did it feel to be forced to provide solace to the perpetrators of a genocide that claimed the lives of their family and friends?

In 1943, German SS officers in charge of Auschwitz-Birkenau ordered that an orchestra should be formed among the female prisoners. Almost fifty women and girls from eleven nations were assembled to play marching music to other inmates - forced labourers who left each morning and returned, exhausted and often broken, at the end of the day - and give weekly concerts for Nazi officers. Individual members were sometimes summoned to give solo performances of an officer's favourite piece of music. It was the only entirely female orchestra in any of the Nazi prison camps and, for almost all of the musicians chosen to take part, being in the orchestra was to save their lives. In The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz, award-winning historian Anne Sebba tells their astonishing story with sensitivity and care.

This is a visual celebration of the glories of floral beauty and the ephemeral nature of the seasons in a handsome Japanese-style accordion-fold book with open binding and slipcased with an informational booklet.

The serenity of nature and the graceful beauty of flowers are traditional themes in classical Japanese art that are embraced and appreciated worldwide. Here, they are presented in a carefully curated collection of stunning full-color reproductions of classic works by Japanese artists such as Hokusai, Hiroshige, and Utamaro.

Meticulously executed in great and realistic detail and awash in rich and subtle color, this one-of-a-kind art book—featuring an ever-scrolling concertina format—showcases the perennial appeal of Japanese woodblock prints celebrating the ephemeral bounty of flowers in all stages of bloom.

Beautiful and elegant, this specially chosen collection features the classic flowers that symbolize the progression of the seasons in Japanese culture—cherry and plum blossoms, camellias, peonies, iris, lilies, roses, wisteria, hibiscus, water lilies, chrysanthemums. It is sure to delight gardeners, floral artists, designers, art lovers, as well as fans of Japanese culture.

A lyrical celebration of cats through the timeless beauty of Japanese haiku and brush art. This beautifully illustrated volume presents 82 cat-themed haiku by Japan's most celebrated poets—including Basho, Issa, Shiki, Buson, Soseki and many others. Beautifully compiled and illustrated by award-winning artst Manda, and translated by bestselling author William Scott Wilson, this collection pairs classic verse with evocative artwork. Free audio recordings of each haiku in both English and Japanese are available online. The passing year!The cat hunches downon my lap. —NATSUME SOSEKIA night of frost;opening the window to the criesof an abandoned cat. —ISSAThis charming edition makes a perfect gift for poetry lovers, cat enthusiasts and anyone captivated by the austere beauty of haiku.

The story of the ancient world’s most spectacular library, and the civilization that created it

'A thrilling trip back to Mesopotamia, birthplace of horoscopes and algorithms … via the abundant records they left behind, written on clay tablets… absorbing… hums with life' - Mathew Lyons, Daily Telegraph

'Fascinating and rich in detail… provides an excellent survey of Mesopotamian literary classics.. and offers snippets of daily life' - Literary Review

When a team of Victorian archaeologists dug into a grassy hill in Iraq, they chanced upon one of the oldest and greatest stores of knowledge ever seen: the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, seventh century BCE ruler of a huge swathe of the ancient Middle East known as Mesopotamia. After his death, vengeful rivals burned Ashurbanipal’s library to the ground - yet the texts, carved on clay tablets, were baked and preserved by the heat. Buried for millennia, the tablets were written in cuneiform: the first written language in the world.

More than half of human history is written in cuneiform, but only a few hundred people on earth can read it. In this captivating new book, Assyriologist Selena Wisnom takes us on an immersive tour of this extraordinary library, bringing ancient Mesopotamia and its people to life. Through it, we encounter a world of astonishing richness, complexity and sophistication. Mesopotamia, she shows, was home to advanced mathematics, astronomy and banking, law and literature. This was a culture absorbed and developed by the ancient Greeks, and whose myths were precursors to Bible stories - in short, a culture without which our lives today would be unrecognizable.

The Library of Ancient Wisdom unearths a civilization at once strange and strangely familiar: a land of capricious gods, exorcisms and professional lamenters, whose citizens wrote of jealous rivalries, profound friendships and petty grievances. Through these pages we come face to face with humanity’s first civilization: their startling achievements, their daily life, and their struggle to understand our place in the universe.

'A romp through British royal fashion and image-making between the Edwardian era and 1960 . . . Compelling and well-researched' New York Times

'Magnificent . . . A book that is tart, racy and compulsively readable. The pictures, as you might expect, are gorgeous' Kathryn Hughes, The Times

Published ahead of the centenary of the Queen’s birth, this beautifully illustrated book uncovers the hidden history of the Crown and how it survived a tumultuous era and two world wars.

**Features over 100 sumptuous images**

From the birth of the house of Windsor in 1917, its leading women – Queen Mary, the Queen Mother, the Duchess of Windsor and Queen Elizabeth II – faced the perils of abdication and assassination, revolution and the rise of fascism, the threat of invasion and all-out war. Their sartorial decisions, alongside those of their royal husbands, projected power and perpetuity, diplomacy and defiance.

In this cinematic story of espionage and exquisite couture, Justine Picardie reveals the undercover lives of the creators behind the façade — including Hardy Amies, Cecil Beaton, Norman Hartnell and Edward Molyneux — and traces the ways in which visual iconography safeguarded the monarchy, even when their reign seemed to be hanging by a thread.

Drawing on original research in the Royal Archives and her own experiences at Balmoral, Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace, Picardie explores the family feuds and international conflicts that challenged the Crown, and how royal fashion has long been wielded as a weapon.

'I have never read a book on Mesopotamia that so beautifully brings to life the people themselves ... It melts away the sense of time.'
TOM HOLLAND

'Tender, moving and vivid.'
ROBERT MACFARLANE

'Beautiful'
STEPHEN GREENBLATT

'Fascinating and magnificent, beautifully written and explained: this book is a masterpiece.'
GEORGE MONBIOT

'Ancient Mesopotamia comes alive in Moudhy Al-Rashid's must-read, millennia-spanning history ... spellbinding'
NEW SCIENTIST

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Thousands of years ago, in a part of the world we now call ancient Mesopotamia, people began writing things down for the very first time.

What they left behind, in a vast region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, preserves leaps in human ingenuity, like the earliest depiction of a wheel and the first approximation of pi. But they also capture breathtakingly intimate, raw and relatable moments, like a dog's paw prints as it accidentally stepped into fresh clay, or the imprint of a child's teeth.

In Between Two Rivers, historian Dr Moudhy Al-Rashid reveals what these ancient people chose to record about their lives, allowing us to brush hands with them millennia later. We find a lullaby to soothe a baby, instructions for exorcising a ghost, countless receipts for beer, and the adorable, messy writing of preschoolers. We meet an enslaved person negotiating their freedom, an astronomer tracing the movement of the planets, a princess who may have created the world's first museum, and a working mother struggling with 'the juggle' in 1900 BCE.

Together, these fragments illuminate not just the history of Mesopotamia, but the story of how history was made.

Wervelende biografie van het bewogen leven van Germaine de Staël, de enige vrouw waar Napoleon bang voor was. Ze vocht voor vrijheid, vrouwenrechten en was een pionier van Europees denken.

Lavishly illustrated in full color, How to Read a Wedding Dress displays annotated images of historical garments that outline important features and highlight how styles have developed over time, offering a fascinating overview of changing bridal trends over three centuries.

In this ideal companion to her bestselling guide, How to Read a Dress, Lydia Edwards offers a fascinating glimpse into the evolution of bridal wear around the world, from the Renaissance up to the modern day. This guide explores prevalent trends and developments, including how the Victorian fashion for white silk (a break from the previous 18th-century tradition of the bride simply donning a ‘best’ dress) over the course of the 19th century developed into the now familiar and indeed ubiquitous cultural icon of the white wedding dress and veil. Finally, she explores how today, brides worldwide are reimagining the past and incorporating ‘vintage’ style as an integral part of their big day and considers style choices influenced by gender identity fluidity and same-sex marriage.

Equipping the reader with eclectic examples of bridal wear over the centuries, this is the ultimate guide to the wedding dress for students, researchers of fashion history, and anyone looking for inspiration for their big day.

De beleving van de gewone Nederlanders die hun leven moeten aanpassen aan een nieuwe realiteit, met alle verliezen, zorgen maar ook kansen

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2025

'A fascinating alternative history covering 2,500 years and a geographical span from Japan to California' NEW STATESMAN
'A revelation . . . The tale of each carpet as Armstrong tells it is untidy and tragic and comical all at once' TESSA HADLEY

On the saddles of warlords, draping the walls of palaces, under the feet of presidents, dictators and religious leaders: where there is power, there have been carpets.

Threads of Empire is a vivid new history of global power told through the stories of the world's most fascinating rugs. From colonial bureaucrats to Lutheran priests, oil barons to Islamic rules, Scythian chieftains to Churchill and Stalin, textile scholar Dorothy Armstrong explores how these objects have always travelled in the slipstream of power - and how the unwritten histories of those who made them are woven into the fabric beneath our feet.

Winner of the Duff Cooper Prize, Adam Hochschild's King Leopold’s Ghost is the true and haunting account of Leopold's brutal regime and its lasting effect on a ruined nation. In the late nineteenth century, when the great powers in Europe were tearing Africa apart and seizing ownership of land for themselves, King Leopold of Belgium took hold of the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. In his devastatingly barbarous colonization of this area, Leopold stole its rubber and ivory, pummelled its people and set up a ruthless regime that would reduce the population by half. While he did all this, he carefully constructed an image of himself as a deeply feeling humanitarian. King Leopold's Ghost is the inspiring and deeply moving account of a handful of missionaries and other idealists who travelled to Africa and unwittingly found themselves in the middle of a gruesome holocaust. Instead of turning away, these brave few chose to stand up against Leopold. Adam Hochschild brings life to this largely untold story and, crucially, casts blame on those responsible for this atrocity. 'All the tension and drama that one would expect in a good novel' - Robert Harris, author of FatherlandNow part of the Picador Collection

A nation on the cusp of war. A king ousted from his capital by the people. A society on the brink of collapse. From Jonathan Healey comes a gripping history about the months that sent England into civil war

‘An old-fashioned Westminster thriller . . . You could hardly find a more engrossing or exciting story’ DOMINIC SANDBROOK, SUNDAY TIMES

‘A rollicking history, packed with fire and excitement *****’ DANIEL BROOKS, TELEGRAPH

‘The House of Cards-ish drama remains gripping to the last’ LITERARY REVIEW

After years of tension between a king and his people, in 1641 England reaches a semblance of peace. Armies have disbanded, legislation has passed to ensure Parliament will continue to sit, and the people are tentatively optimistic. Radical politicians congratulate themselves on a stunning political victory. Royal servants are coming to accept an altered future.

Then comes winter. With it, chaos, protests, political deadlock, and eventually a remarkable attempt by King Charles I to destroy his opponents. On 4 January 1642 Charles marches on the small riverside city of Westminster at the head of an army, seeking to arrest five Members of Parliament. In doing so, he sets in motion a series of events that will lead to bloodshed and war, changing a nation forever.

Why did the English Civil War break out? The Blood in Winter tells the story of an English people's great political awakening, and of a nation that splintered into bloodshed at a terrifying speed. Jonathan Healey recreates the claustrophobic atmosphere of the day, with rowdy protestors in the streets and London blanketed in coal smoke. It is a story of remarkable but flawed characters, all faced with unpalatable choices, and a frightening picture of a society in profound distress.

'What a wonderful book! The storytelling, the research, the deep love of her subject -- this must be the climax of Rappaport's long and illustrious career'
Lucy Worsley

To Queen Victoria she was Aunt Julie; to Catherine the Great she was Grand Duchess Anna Feodorovna, granddaughter-in-law. This is the story of Princess Juliane-Henriette-Ulrike of Saxe-Coburg, the Rebel Romanov.

Born in 1781 in a small impoverished duchy of Germany, Julie's quiet life took a fairy-tale turn when she married into the Russian Imperial Family - the Romanovs. But this world of baroque splendour, of opulent palaces and grandeur, was no happily ever after. Taken to Russia at just fourteen, her marriage was hastily brokered to save the Saxe-Coburg duchy from financial ruin. Her husband, Grand Duke Konstantin, was cruel and abusive, Julie was uprooted from her home, family, language and culture.

As Russia and Europe were thrown into tumult by the murder of Emperor Paul and the rise of Napoleon, Julie finally made her escape back to Germany, where she lived for two decades as a social pariah, denied a divorce by the Imperial Family. Forced to give up two illegitimate children to protect her family's honour, she eventually built a life for herself in Switzerland, where she entertained poets and philosophers, regaling them with tales from the Russian court.

Helen Rappaport recreates the extraordinary life of this forgotten figure. In doing so she sheds new light on the Romanovs, reveals the sacrifices Julie made to further her family's interests - her brother became king of Belgium, her sister gave birth to Queen Victoria - and investigates the true nature of Julie's relationship with Tsar Alexander I. Rich in history, drama and royal intrigue, Julie's remarkable story is told at last.

Amid the lush abundance of Java's landscape, two boys spend their days exploring the vast lakes and teeming forests. But as time passes the boys come to realize that their shared sense of adventure cannot bridge the gulf between their backgrounds, for one is the son of a Dutch plantation owner, and the other the son of a servant. Inevitably, as they grow up, they grow estranged and it is not until years later that they meet again. It will be an explosive and emblematic meeting that marks them even more deeply than their childhood friendship did.

Een belangrijk boek. Ik hoop vurig dat velen Applebaums voortreffelijke geschiedenis zullen lezen. The New York Times Book Review

'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 women, their passion, their courage and their own way of being...' PHILIPPA GREGORY, author of The Other Boleyn Girl and Normal Women

'A celebration of female ambition and endeavour... enormous fun' The Sunday Times

A spectacular, vivid, groundbreaking work of history which takes us into the minds and lives of medieval women.

What was life really like for women in the medieval period? How did they think about sex, death and God? Could they live independent lives? And how can we hear their stories?

Few women had the luxury of writing down their thoughts and feelings during medieval times. But remarkably, there are at least four extraordinary women who did. Marie de France, a poet; Julian of Norwich, a mystic and anchoress; Christine de Pizan, a widow and court writer; and Margery Kempe, a "no-good wife". In their own ways these four very different writers pushed back against the misogyny of the period. Each broke new ground in women’s writing and left us incredible insights into the world of medieval life and politics.

This mesmerizing book is an unforgettably lively and immersive journey into the everyday lives of medieval women through the stories of these four iconic women writers, some of which are retold here for general readers for the first time.

‘Fascinating, absorbing and educative’ A. C. Grayling
‘Highly original and beautifully written’ Dominic Lawson

A compelling insight into how our imagination works, based on the latest scientific research.

People often think of imagination as something used only in creative endeavours. In fact, we use imagination constantly as we reminisce, anticipate, plan, daydream, read, create imagined worlds. The truth is we live in the here and now much less than we tend to think. Imagination isn’t the exception in our daily lives; it’s our default setting. Yet only now are we beginning to understand exactly how it works.

From hallucination to sleepwalking, from REM sleep to delusions, neurologist Adam Zeman brilliantly guides us through the latest scientific studies in the world of the imagination. He draws on research in neuroscience, the study of human origins and child development to show how the human brain is above all else a creative, imaginative organ – and that we have evolved to share what we imagine.

Our brains behave in strikingly similar ways when we observe, remember, imagine or act. Imagine looking at a cube and your eye will trace the contours of the cube as if you were actually seeing it. Yet it turns out that people differ hugely in their imaginative experience. Some people lack sensory imagery altogether – they would be unable to picture their family if asked to – but still lead fulfilling, even highly creative, lives.

From how we visualise to how we understand the minds of others, from the benefits of play to mental disorders, The Shape of Things Unseen dazzles and delights. It is an essential guide to the latest discoveries about the workings of the human mind.

Een relevante en actuele bundel over de turbulente relatie tussen protestanten en het klimaat.

Meeslepende (familie)geschiedenis over kunst, idealen en de opbouw van Nederland. Een leraar, een meubelontwerper en kunstcollectioneur, en een beeldhouwer: drie broers kiezen elk een ander pad

Terwijl de ene broer de romantiek een plaats gaf in een democratisch systeem, liet de andere zich betoveren door de koortsdroom van een dictator.

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 to his head in April 1945. Although eagerly anticipated around the world, there were no available witnesses to his suicide—and his corpse was not put on display. This created the perfect vacuum for myth and survival legends, while rival intelligence agencies and propaganda further confounded the investigations of successive historians. Caroline Sharples explores the aftermath of events at the Führerbunker in the first cultural account of this decisive yet elusive moment. Hitler’s death was widely anticipated, and the news elicited a huge range of emotions as governments and secret services scrambled to verify what they heard. The search for proof of death led to an outpouring of conspiratorial thinking, and the final moments of Hitler’s life have been reimagined ever since. This is an intriguing, unsettling account of a historical event we all think we know—and a sophisticated examination of how history is written.

*WINNER OF A PALESTINE BOOK AWARD*From the award-winning writer and thinker, an essential reckoning with the war in Gaza, its historical conditions, and moral and geopolitical ramifications'Courageous and bracing, learned and ethical, rigorous and mind-expanding' NAOMI KLEIN'Mishra has made a powerful contribution to the moral history of the world' ANDREW O'HAGAN'Urgent' HISHAM MATAR'Brilliant' WILLIAM DALRYMPLEMemory of the Holocaust, the ultimate atrocity of Europe’s civil wars and the paradigmatic genocide, has shaped the Western political and moral imagination in the postwar era. Fears of its recurrence have been routinely invoked to justify Israel’s policies against Palestinians. But for most people around the world – the ‘darker peoples’, in W. E. B. Du Bois’s words – the main historical memory is of the traumatic experiences of slavery and colonialism, and the central event of the twentieth century is decolonisation – freedom from the white man’s world. The World After Gaza takes the war in the Middle East, and the bitterly polarised reaction to it within as well as outside the West, as the starting point for a broad reevaluation of two competing narratives of the last century: the West’s triumphant account of victory over Nazi and communist totalitarianism, and the spread of liberal capitalism, and the global majority's frequently thwarted vision of racial equality. At a moment when the world’s balance of power is shifting and a long-dominant Western minority no longer commands the same authority and credibility, it is critically important to enter the experiences and perspectives of the majority of the world’s population. As old touchstones and landmarks crumble, only a new history with a sharply different emphasis can reorient us to the world and worldviews now emerging into the light. In this concise, powerful and pointed treatise, Mishra reckons with the fundamental questions posed by our present crisis – about whether some lives matter more than others, why identity politics built around memories of suffering is being widely embraced and why racial antagonisms are intensifying amid a far-right surge in the West, threatening a global conflagration. The World After Gaza is an indispensable moral guide to our past, present and future.

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 to describe what makes this famous golden age unique.

In Inventing the Renaissance, acclaimed historian Ada Palmer provides a fresh perspective on what makes this epoch so captivating. Her witty and irreverent journey through the fantasies historians have constructed about the period show how its legend derives more from later centuries’ mythmaking than from the often grim reality of the period itself. She examines its defining figures and movements: the enduring legacy of Niccolò Machiavelli, the rediscovery of the classics, the rise of the Medici and fall of the Borgias, the astonishing artistic achievements of Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Cellini, the impact of the Inquisition and the expansion of secular Humanism. Palmer also explores the ties between culture and money: books, for example, could cost as much as grand houses, so the period’s innovative thinkers could only thrive with the help of the super-rich. She offers fifteen provocative and entertaining character portraits of Renaissance men and women, some famous, some obscure, whose intersecting lives show how the real Renaissance was more unexpected, more international and, above all, more desperate than its golden reputation suggests.

Drawing on her popular blogs and writing with her characteristic energy and wit, Palmer presents the Renaissance as we have never seen it before. Colloquial, funny and brilliant, you would never expect a work of deep scholarship to make you alternately laugh and cry.