Politiek

Dit boek schetst een informatief en verrassend beeld van de dagelijkse gang van zaken in het hart van Europa. Hierdoor wordt de zin en onzin van de EU voor de lezer een stuk begrijpelijker.

Donald Trump in het Witte Huis. Een baanbrekend portret van binnenuit door Pulitzerprijs-winnaar Maggie Haberman en Emmy-winnaar Jonathan Swan.

Luc Panhuysen beschrijft de veelbewogen levens van de gebroeders de Witt op meesterlijke wijze. Een aangrijpende verhaal over twee bevlogen staatslieden

Ontdek het leven van koningin Victoria, van haar jeugd en huwelijk tot haar onstuitbare vastberadenheid om te blijven regeren.

Dit boek beschrijft het leven van Hugo de Groot, een Nederlandse denker wiens ideeën de basis vormen van het internationale recht.

In 'Het visioen van Constantijn' vertellen Jona Lendering en Vincent Hunink het ware verhaal over de eerste christelijke keizer.

Rome in al zijn glorie en duisternis. Anthony Everitt beschrijft het indrukwekkende levensverhaal van Caesar Augustus, de man die een republiek in een imperium veranderde. Een politiek meesterwerk.

Nooit eerder was antieke geschiedenis zo sprankelend als in de boeken van Willemijn van Dijk. Ze schetst in dit boek een prachtig en meeslepend beeld van Tiberius, de tweede keizer van Rome.

Een paar decennia na haar vroege dood is Joke Smit nog steeds een begrip. Een bezield portret van een van de oermoeders van het Nederlandse feminisme.

In ‘De twaalf caesars’ treedt Matthew Dennison in de voetsporen van de klassieke geschiedschrijver Suetonius. Hij beschrijft het leven van de Romeinse keizers van Julius Caesar tot en met Domitianus.

Van het slingeruurwerk tot de wetten van licht en beweging: het veelzijdige genie Christiaan Huygens in een meeslepende biografie.

Oost-Pruisen, 1945. Het levensverhaal van Liesabeth Otto. Ze is zeven jaar als ze wees wordt, probeert te overleven in bittere armoede. Wat volgt is een jarenlange zwerftocht door Europa. Waargebeurd.

In dit boek komen de belangrijkste elementen uit het werk van de Franse antropoloog Claude Lévi-Strauss aan de orde, naast de relatie tussen zijn persoon en zijn wetenschapsbeoefening.

'Het Binnenhof van Jaïr' legt de werkwijze van Jaïr bloot en geeft een bijzondere inkijk in de Haagse keuken. Maar bovenal bevat het aanstekelijke verhalen over tal van bekende en minder bekende politici.

Een meeslepende nieuwe biografie van Alexander de Grote, geschreven als een intiem, hedendaags portret van hoe zijn wereld hem zag en de prijs die hij betaalde om de grootste veldheer uit de geschiedenis te worden.

Anthony Everitt geeft in deze biografie naast het verhaal van Cicero ook een helder beeld van de roerigste en meest belangwekkende periode uit de Romeinse geschiedenis.

Een meeslepende geschiedenis van zeven Habsburgse zussen. Hoe de uiteenlopende levens van de zeven prinsessen het moderne Europa vormden.

AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERThe bestselling author of The Parasitic Mind shows why empathy in politics leads to civilizational collapse. What happens when a society elevates victimhood to a virtue and decides that punishment is cruel? You get the disease Dr. Gad Saad calls suicidal empathy. And the West may be terminally infected. In his new book, Suicidal Empathy, Saad unleashes a blistering critique of maladaptively irrational altruism that has gripped our culture. This mind parasite hijacked the empathy module of our progressive elite, leading to a catastrophic miscalibration of moral priorities. The results are everywhere: from coddling violent criminals to protecting rapists to branding self-defense as toxic behavior. We are witnessing a civilization in rapid decline. Lunatic policies are instituted because we prioritize the feelings of ostensibly marginalized groups over The Truth, criminals over victims, and squatters over homeowners. This is not humane; it’s an active dismantling of the pillars that keep us safe and free. This crisis of empathy creates a horrifying system of inverse morality where the strong and successful are demonized, and the destructive are celebrated. Just look at the insane inversions we tolerate daily: we prefer illegal migrants over our own legal citizens and veterans, permit drug addicts to threaten children’s safety in parks, and elevate transgender 'women' above biological women in sports and safe spaces. Common sense is dying in a deluge of misguided compassion. Suicidal Empathy is your wake-up call. Stop ignoring your survival instincts in the name of political correctness. This isn't just misguided policy; it is the ultimate expression of a culture actively choosing its own demise.

Poor boy. Dark star. Spy. Transgressor. Genius. This is the extraordinary story of Christopher Marlowe – Shakespeare’s greatest inspiration and rival. In brutally repressive Elizabethan London, artists are frightened; foreigners are suspect; crowds revel in animal fights and public executions. Into this crude world comes an ambitious boy whose uncanny ear for poetry and radical streak would change England forever. Enter Christopher Marlowe. A cobbler’s son from Canterbury, by the time of his murder in 1593 Marlowe is the most celebrated playwright of his time, setting the stage for an explosion of artistic creativity. Written by one of our greatest writers on the Elizabethan era, Dark Renaissance tells Marlowe’s story: a thrilling tale of daring, scandal and tragedy which reveals Marlowe to be a blazing talent who helped break England out of the cultural darkness and into the light.

Betrayal charts the dramatic collapse of the post-1945 international system. Ours is now a world in which Trump's America has effectively endorsed Putin's land-grab in Ukraine and painted Europe as an enemy. Meanwhile, an anti-western alliance has taken shape featuring China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. Countries find themselves in an uncertain and dangerous era. It is a return to nineteenth century imperialism and spheres of influence - but with withering modern firepower. Written in thrilling style, this vital and clear-eyed book reports from the frontlines of a new age of conquest. Luke Harding visits villages in eastern Ukraine under Russian bombardment, talks to Greenlanders about a US takeover, tours the divided Korean peninsula and sits down with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Betrayal tells the story of presidents and ordinary people, caught up in conflict and war. Harding offers an essential guide to brutal Great Power politics and how it came back.

Onthullende biografie van Anton Mussert door meesterverteller Auke Kok

An extraordinary historical journey through England. From Alice Loxton, author of the acclaimed bestseller Eighteen
A Waterstones Best History Book of 2025

‘Joyous. The perfect walk through history‘ – Sir Tony Robinson, actor, presenter and author

'Whimsical, charming and cosy. Will make you want to take a long walk, look at some churchyards, and drink a lovely cup of tea' – Alice Winn, bestselling author of In Memoriam

In 1290, England mourned the death of a queen, Eleanor of Castile, beloved wife of King Edward I, the warrior king. Her body was carried on a 200-mile journey from Lincoln to London, a solemn procession that would become immortalized in stone. To mark the places where it stopped overnight, a heartbroken Edward commissioned twelve magnificent Eleanor Crosses.

More than seven centuries later, bestselling historian Alice Loxton set herself an epic challenge: following in history’s footsteps by walking the entire 200-mile funeral route on the corresponding dates.

As Alice journeys in search of England’s forgotten Queen, over ancient paths and modern motorways, history comes alive in surprising ways. Lively and entertaining, Eleanor uncovers the extraordinary life and formidable character of this lesser-known royal, revealing her inspiring legacy and the hidden history of Britain.

‘Beautiful, elegiac, honest and compelling . . . a modern-day pilgrimage walking in the footsteps of one of the great forgotten queens’ – Kate Mosse, bestselling author of The Map of Bones

‘Loxton has the novelist’s skill of seeing the world through her characters’ eyes, and the historian’s accuracy of vision’ – Philippa Gregory, bestselling author of Normal Women

‘Eleanor is dazzling, alive with wit, elegance and insight. A book that makes history feel urgent, intimate and unforgettable’ – Rob Rinder, bestselling author of The Trial

In De negen levens van Dilan Yesilgöz werpt journaliste en biografe Alies Pegtel nieuw licht op een van de meest controversiële en machtigste Nederlandse politici van dit moment.

Geschreven door een toonaangevend defensie- en veiligheidsexpert: Staatskunst onthult hoe naties samenwerken, met elkaar concurreren en oorlog voeren.

'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.

'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?

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.

Engelen fileert politieke oorlogsretoriek en legt bloot hoe angst, militarisering en NAVO-consensus het debat vervormen. Een scherpe gids om helder te blijven denken in een verharde geopolitieke tijd.

Een onthullend portret van een van de meest aansprekende en verguisde politici van Nederland. Ontdek meer over Femke Halsema, haar burgemeesterschap en de successen en uitdagingen die daarbij horen.

Kim Il Sung ruled his country, North Korea, for longer and shaped it more profoundly than almost any other modern leader. He created a unique and seemingly bizarre and menacing political and social system, establishing a dynasty that has maintained it for two more generations. Yet he remains a curiously inaccessible, little understood figure, partly due to the closed and secretive nature of the state he founded. Michael J. Seth puts together what we know of Kim’s life from all available sources and places it in the context of Korean and modern world history to make both Kim and North Korea comprehensible. He looks at the unusual circumstances that contributed to Kim's rise to power and at the early experiences that help to explain the directions he took his country. Seth examines his impressive early achievements and his later failures, which left North Korea the isolated, impoverished half of a divided nation. Kim was a charismatic and resourceful leader determined to reunify and modernize his country. But he pursued these aims with ruthlessness, egotism and extreme narrow-mindedness. Ultimately, his political inflexibility led to disaster.

In 1600 English helmsman William Adams washed ashore in Japan and was interrogated by Tokugawa Ieyasu, Japan’s most powerful warlord and soon-to-be shogun. Far from executing Adams as a pirate, Ieyasu made him one of his most trusted advisers. This biography traces Adams’s rise from humble pilot to a position of immense influence in Japan’s foreign relations. It unravels the subsequent diplomatic manoeuvres of the Western powers in the shogun’s empire, and Adams’s eventual downfall. This is the first full biography of Adams based on original Dutch, English, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese sources, and includes much previously unknown information. Frederik Cryns tells the authentic story of Adams’s chequered life in its historical context, taking us on a compelling journey into Adams’s complex inner feelings and cosmopolitan heart.

The second iconic book in the number one global YA blockbuster HungerGames series, now sumptuously illustrated by Nico Delort.

A brand-new life of England’s greatest king from our best-selling medieval historian.

Jens Stoltenberg geeft een eerlijk en openhartig verslag van een dramatisch decennium als leider van de NAVO

TrumpHere is Trump in action – how he runs his business and how he runs his life – as he meets the people he needs to meet, chats with family and friends, clashes with enemies, and changes the face of the New York City skyline. But even a maverick plays by the rules, and Trump has formulated eleven guidelines for success.

THE SUNDAY TIMES #1 BESTSELLERA Book of the Year in The Times and Financial Times‘The biographer who brought down Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’ THE OBSERVER‘This isn’t a book; it’s a case for revolution’ SUNDAY TIMES'Undoubtedly the most important book of the last year, if not the century' MAIL ON SUNDAY‘This book has changed the way its readers think. Possibly the most important book that touches on the British monarchy since the days of Thomas Payne’ WILL LLOYD‘As represented in the book’s pages, the royal family, with its appendages and penumbra, can be seen as an impossible entity, toxic to those in it and attached to it, and subtly contaminating the rest of us.’ DAVID AARONOVICH‘Surely has a claim to the title of book of the year, for its seismic impact’ FINANCIAL TIMESDrawing on four years of research, numerous FOI requests and interviews with over a hundred people who have never spoken out before, the book traces the lives of the late Queen’s second son and his ex-wife through their childhoods, courtship, marriage, divorce, careers, and royal and charitable activities.Having still lived together until their departure from Royal Lodge in 2025, they claimed to be "the happiest divorced couple in the world". The book investigates the reality of their relationship and their love lives. It charts Andrew’s record in the Falklands, his business activities and reveals details of how the couple have been able financially to sustain their extravagant lifestyles. It also recounts the full story of their links with Jeffrey Epstein.Chronicling their lives in parallel, the picture that emerges is of a spoilt former prince unable to connect and a former duchess pushed by her insecurities into a desperate need to maintain the attention her ‘royal’ status brought. Rigorously researched and packed full of revelations, this is eye-watering biography at its best.‘This isn't just a royal biography. It's a study in reputational collapse and the danger of unchecked power inside Britain's most protected institution' THE STANDARD‘A catalyst for Andrew’s de-princing’ THE TIMES

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER The author of She-Wolves chronicles the lives and reigns of Richard II and Henry IV, two cousins whose rivalry brought their nation to the brink of disintegration - and back again*LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2025**SHORTLISTED FOR THE ELIZABETH LONGFORD PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY 2025**THE TELEGRAPH'S BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024*'A glorious work of history... a gripping and haunting tragedy... There was no book published this year, novels included, that I found richer in character; no plot more taut' - Tom Holland, The Spectator'A dazzling tour de force of epic royal history: a compulsive, unputdownable real-life thriller, a gripping portrait of ruthless power politics, and a study of British tyranny... written with the delicacy and elegance of one of Britain’s most brilliant historians at the top of her game' - Simon Sebag-Montefiore'If ever a book of history was blessed with contemporary relevance, this one is. The dumbfounding, delusional, narcissistic King Richard; the white-knuckle ride of Henry IV, dogged all the way by notions of illegitimacy. I feel these men could have been ripped from today’s headlines. The book’s great achievement is in the storytelling — the unfolding drama, the secrets of power and ambition so beautifully controlled in the telling. The Eagle and the Hart will be a non-fiction book of the year and will deserve the ovations it is certain to receive. When history is this gripping there’s nothing like it' - Andrew O'HaganRichard of Bordeaux and Henry Bolingbroke were first cousins, born just three months apart. Their lives were from the beginning entwined. When they were still children, Richard was crowned King Richard II with Henry at his side, carrying the sword of state: a ten-year-old lord in the service of his ten-year-old king. Yet, as the animals on their heraldic badges showed, they grew up to be opposites: Richard was the white hart, a thin-skinned narcissist, and Henry the eagle, a chivalric hero, a leader who inspired loyalty where Richard inspired only fear. Henry had all the qualities Richard lacked, all the qualities a sovereign needed, bar one: birth right. Increasingly threatened by his charismatic cousin, Richard became consumed by the need for total power, in a time of constant conflict, rebellions and reprisals. When he banished Henry into exile, the stage was set for a final confrontation, as the hart became the tyrant and the eagle his usurper. Helen Castor tells this story of one of the strangest and most fateful relationships in English history. It is a story about power, and masculinity in crisis, and a nation brought to the brink of catastrophe. At its heart, it is the story of two men whose lives were played out in extraordinary parallel, to devastating effect.

From the acclaimed author of The Pursuit of Glory and Frederick the Great, a riotous biography of the charismatic ruler of 18th-century Poland and Saxony - and his catastrophic reign.

'It's been a superb year for history but Augustus the Strong ranks up there with the very very best! I cant recommend it strongly enough' - Simon Sebag-Montefiore

'The wonderful story of one of the worst monarchs in European history, told with enormous wit and scholarship by a supremely talented historian. If you have the slightest interest in Germans, Poles, porcelain, jewels, the Enlightenment, military disasters or the pleasures of fox-tossing, then this is the book for you' - Dominic Sandbrook

*Shortlisted for the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography 2025*

Augustus is one of the great what-ifs of the 18th century. He could have turned the accident of ruling two major realms into the basis for a powerful European state – a bulwark against the Russians and a block on Prussian expansion. Alas, there was no opportunity Augustus did not waste and no decision he did not get wrong. By the time of his death Poland was fatally damaged and would subsequently disappear as an independent state until the 20th century.

Tim Blanning’s wonderfully entertaining and original new book is a study in failed statecraft, showing how a ruler can shape history as much by incompetence as brilliance. Augustus’s posthumous sobriquet ‘The Strong’ referred not to any political accomplishment, but to his legendary physical strength and sexual athleticism.

Yet he was also one of the great creative artists of the age, combining driving energy, exquisite taste and apparently boundless resources to master-mind the creation of peerless Dresden, the baroque jewel of jewels. Augustus the Strong brilliantly evokes this time of opulence and excess, decadence and folly.

Eleni put an arm around him and said: “Come, come, life is ahead of us. Raise your soul now. We have much to do.”

This is a book about how the great forces of history shape us – and how world-famous political activist Yanis Varoufakis was inspired by the resilience and the courage of his family, from his mother Eleni and grandmothers Anna and Trisevgeni, to his partner Danae. It is both an intimate portrait of a political awakening and a dramatic sweep through Greece's history of post-colonial independence, Nazi occupation, communist partisan resistance, Cold War fracture, civil war, fascist dictatorship, socialist revival and tumultuous present-day economic collapse.

Raise Your Soul is a powerful tale of resistance and endurance – a beacon of hope for dark times.