In this concise, lucid and entertaining book, with more than forty maps and illustrations, acclaimed historian John Hirst explores the qualities that have made Europe a world-changing civilisation.

Beginning with a rapid historical overview from the ancient Greeks to the present day (the ‘shortest history’ itself), Hirst goes on to examine what makes Europe unique: its political evolution; the shaping influence of its linguistic boundaries; the crucial role played by power struggles betwe...

'This is a miracle of a book' George Lamming'Compelling. Stuart Hall's story is the story of an age' Owen Jones 'Sometimes I feel I was the last colonial'This is the story, in his own words, of the extraordinary life of Stuart Hall: writer, thinker and one of the leading intellectual lights of his age. Growing up in a middle-class family in 1930s Jamaica, then still a British colony, Hall found himself caught between two worlds: the stiflingly respectable middle class in Kingston, who, in the...

What distinguishes history as a discipline from other fields of study? That's the animating question of Sarah Maza's Thinking About History, a general introduction to the field of history that revels in its eclecticism and highlights the inherent tensions and controversies that shape it. Designed for the classroom, Thinking About History is organized around big questions: Whose history do we write, and how does that affect what stories get told and how they are told? How did we come to view t...

A comprehensive account of two of the most important empires in medieval North Africa whose rule fostered the emergence of the Islamic society which endured, in Morocco especially, until the early 20th century. Amira K. Bennison focuses on these dynasties from a positive perspective, placing them in their proper context of medieval Mediterranean and Islamic history.

For almost fifty years, Sources of Japanese Tradition has been the single most valuable collection of English-language readings on Japan. Unrivalled in its wide selection of source materials on history, society, politics, education, philosophy, and religion, the two-volume textbook is a crucial resource for students, scholars, and readers seeking an introduction to Japanese civilization. Originally published in a single hardcover book, Volume 2 is now available as an abridged, two-part paperb...

In this fully revised fourth edition, this book treats globalization from several vantage points, showing how these help grasp the nature of globalization both in the past and today.

Whether as an epic battleground or a cradle of civilizations, Europe has left an enduring imprint on the history of the world for over two millennia.

From megalithic civilizations through ancient times, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, the rise of nationalism, two world wars and the years that followed, this book looks beyond a series of distinct national histories to offer the history of Europe as an often shared experience across one continent.

This book delves into events such a...

Developed in 1938 from a Schneider trophy-winning design by the aeronautical engineer and designer R.J Mitchell, the Supermarine Spitfire went on to become the definitive Allied fighter of the Second World War, and ranks amongst the most famous aircraft of all time. This pocket manual presents an accessible collection of fascinating historical documents to help readers explore the technical and tactical developments relating to the design and use of this famous aircraft. Sources include the A...

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.

North Korea is an impoverished, famine-ridden nation, but it is also a nuclear power whose dictator Kim Jong-un regularly threatens his neighbors and adversaries, the United States in particular, with destruction. Even though Kim and President Donald Trump's responses to him dominate the daily headlines, the idea that North Korea is a menace is not a new one. Indeed, ever since Korea was first divided at the end of World War II, the tension between its northern and southern halves has riveted...