With the use of quotations, this book examines the political events in the Hellenistic world. It also describes the different social systems of the peoples under Greek rule, developments in literature, science and technology and the founding of religious movements.

Few philosophers have been the subject of as much or as intense debate, yet almost everyone agrees on one thing: Jean-Jacques Rousseau is among the most important and influential thinkers in the history of political philosophy. This book brings together fresh translations of three of Rousseau's works.

An account of the Russian Front in the First World War. It dispels the myths surrounding a still relatively little-known aspect of the war, showing how inefficiency rather than economic shortage led to Russia's desperate privations and eventual retreat.

Ever since the attacks of 11th September, western leaders have described a world engaged in 'a fight for civilization'. But what do we mean by civilization? We believe in a western tradition of openness and freedom that has produced a good life for many millions of people and a culture of enormous depth and creative power. But the history of our civilisation is also filled with unspeakable brutality - for every Leonardo there is a Mussolini, for every Beethoven symphony a concentration camp, ...

This anthology of writings from the ancient world explores how history should be written and what responsibility the historian bears. It ranges from longer pieces, such as the complete essays 'On Thucydides' by Dionysus, 'On the Malice of Herodotus' by Plutarch and the witty 'How to Write History' by Lucian, to key shorter writings by Polybius, Cicero, Xenophon and Pliny the Younger.

A century after Britain's Balfour Declaration promised a Jewish 'national home' in Palestine, veteran Guardian journalist Ian Black has produced a major new history of one of the most polarising conflicts of the modern age.

Drawing on a wide range of sources - from declassified documents to oral testimonies and his own decades of reporting - Enemies and Neighbours brings much-needed perspective and balance to the long and unresolved struggle between Arabs and Jews in the Holy Land.

Beginning in the final years of Ottoman ruleand the British Mandate period, when Zionist immigration transformed Palestine in the face of mounting Arab opposition, the book re-examines the origins of what was a doomed relationship from the start. It sheds fresh light on critical events such as the Arab rebellion of the 1930s; Israel's independence and the Palestinian catastrophe (Nakba in Arabic) of 1948; the watershed of the 1967 war; two Intifadas; the Oslo Accords and Israel's shift to the right. It traces how - after five decades of occupation, ever-expanding Jewish settlements and the construction of the West Bank 'separation wall' - hopes for a two-state solution have all but disappeared, and explores what the future might ho...