Recently many people have assumed that we are shaped by our environment: a blank slate waiting to be inscribed by upbringing and culture, with innate abilities playing little part. This title shows that this view denies the heart of our being: human nature.

Cook led three famous expeditions to the Pacific Ocean between 1768 and 1779. In voyages that ranged from the Antarctic circle to the Arctic Sea, Cook charted Australia and the whole coast of New Zealand, and brought back descriptions of the natural history of the Pacific. This title tells the story of these voyages.

Why do so many swear words involve topics like sex, bodily functions or the divine? Why do some children's names thrive while others fall out of favour? Why do we threaten and bribe and seduce in such elaborate, often comical ways? This title looks at how the relationship between words and thoughts can help us understand who we are.

At the end of the Second World War, the Soviet Union unexpectedly found itself in control of a huge swathe of territory in Eastern Europe. Stalin and his secret police set out to convert a dozen radically different countries to a completely new political and moral system: Communism.

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER'Glorious. Wonderfully engaging, wonderfully observed... that rare thing: a novel that is as affecting as it is entertaining' New York TimesWHY DO WE FALL IN LOVE WITH THE PEOPLE WE DO?WHY DO WE VISIT OUR MISTAKES ON OUR CHILDREN?WHAT MAKES LIFE TRULY BEAUTIFUL?Set in New England mainly and London partly, On Beauty concerns a pair of feuding families - the Belseys and the Kippses - and a clutch of doomed affairs. It puts low morals among high ideals and asks...

What caused the Russian Revolution? Did it succeed or fail? Do we still live with its consequences? This book deals with these questions.

From fire-stealing Prometheus to scene-stealing Helen of Troy, from Jason and his golden fleece to Oedipus and his mother, this collection of classic tales from Greek mythology demonstrates the inexhaustible vitality of a timeless cultural legacy. These stories of heroes and powerful gods and goddesses are set forth simply and movingly, in language that retains the power and drama of the original works by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Homer.

Introduction by Werner Jaeger

W...

From the authors of the best-selling The Second Machine Age, a leader’s guide to success in a rapidly changing economy.

Behrens and Calder are two secret agents living in the English countryside, desperately seeking a quiet life. But despite their best efforts, they find themselves repeatedly obliged to wipe out a host of brutal and ingenious traitors, Soviet spies and old Nazis.