An exploration of Cuba's Cold War mindset and a people in the throes of transition, with tales of run-ins with spies, secret backrooms, and empty grocery shelves

Fidel Castro is dead. Donald Trump is in the White House. And to most outsiders, the fate of Cuba has never been more uncertain. But those who look close enough realize the blueprints for the...

Forest Lawn Memorial-Park is certainly the most famous cemetery in California and one of the most famous in the country. It has been praised for its service to the community and parodied in print, TV, and film. Forest Lawn Cemetery was founded in 1906 in Tropico, California, now part of the city of Glendale. Although other books have covered Forest Lawn’s...

Revolving around the infamous gentlemen's club of London, Scoundrels: The Hunt for Hansclapp continues the combative joint memoirs of adventurer-spies, Major Cornwall and Major Trevelyan.

In this second volume, the Majors recount tales of kidnapping in the Congo, manslaughter on the Orient Express and romance at the Stasi's Christmas Party. The Majors...

WHEN OLD DECEPTIONS LEAD TO NEW DESIRES
Ross Carlisle, Earl of Spalding, has dedicated his life to serving his country. When he discovers secrets that could endanger England, he’s forced into an impossible situation—commit treason and race to London to clear his name before the crown turns against him. He’s prepared to abandon everything he possesses in...

In the early twentieth century, a teenage Greek girl in Constantinople loses both her parents and, together with her younger sister, gets thrown into a massive population exchange between Greece and Turkey. She ends up in a refugee camp in northern Greece. With determination she creates a life in her new country, becoming a teacher in a small mountain town...

Johns Hopkins destroyed his private papers so thoroughly that no credible biography exists of the Baltimore Quaker titan. One of America’s richest men and the largest single shareholder of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Hopkins was also one of the city’s defining developers. In The Ghosts of Johns Hopkins, Antero Pietila weaves together a...

SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny became a legend in his own time. "Hitler's favorite commando" acquired a reputation as a man of daring, renowned for his audacious 1943 mission to extricate Mussolini from a mountain-top prison. Skorzeny's influence on special operations doctrine was far-reaching and long-lasting--in 2011, when US Navy SEALs infiltrated...

Bourbon whiskey has made a surprising contribution to American legal history. Tracking the history of bourbon and bourbon law illuminates the development of the United States as a nation, from conquering the wild frontier to rugged individualism to fostering the entrepreneurial spirit to solidifying itself as a nation of laws. Bourbon is responsible for the...

Supported by extensive research, Griffin thoroughly debunks the
myth of an American Empire as a benign, exceptionalist, divinely
ordained historical agent. Instead of Manifest Destiny, what reality-
based Griffin charters is the ‘malign’ ways of US foreign policy since
the 19th century; a trajectory founded by slavery and genocide of
indigenous peoples and then...

In this perceptive biography of Donald Maclean, Robert Cecil draws on his close acquaintance with the man, first at Cambridge and then as his colleague in the Diplomatic Service, to give an insider’s view of Maclean and his circle of ideological spies: Burgess, Philby and Blunt. He details Maclean’s recruitment as an agent by the Comintern in 1934, his...

A landmark account that reveals the long history behind the current Catalan and Scottish independence movements

A distinguished historian of Spain and Europe provides an enlightening account of the development of nationalist and separatist movements in contemporary Catalonia and Scotland. This first sustained comparative study uncovers the similarities and...

A collection of amusing anecdotes and stories from World War Two, the world's weirdest conflict.

The Second World War was the bloodiest on record. It was the first total war in history when civilians - men, women and children - were on the front line as never before. With so many millions involved, the rumour machine went into overdrive, tall stories...

This story takes place on a tiny, far-flung island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, whose nearest neighbor is Madagascar, 500 kilometers away… In 1760, the Utile, a ship carrying black slaves from Africa, was shipwrecked here and abandoned by her crew. The surviving slaves had to struggle to stay alive in this desolate land for fifteen years… When this...

King Edward of England is dead. Edward’s son Harold, one of the potential successors, renounces his oath to yield the throne to William of Normandy. From that day forth, William will have no peace until his rightful claim to the throne is acknowledged. As the famous Halley comet soars across the heavens, giving rise to much speculation among the scholars of...

The Burma campaign of WW2 - marked by extremes, contradictions and harsh brutality - is fascinatingly brought to life in this comprehensive military history.

Through festering jungle and across burning plains to high mountains and lazy rivers, the Burma campaign of the Second World War involved the longest retreat in British history, and the longest...

Explore the sensation of tart, fruity and refreshing Gose-style beers, popular in Germany centuries ago and experiencing a renaissance today. Follow the development of this lightly sour wheat beer as it grew, then bordered on extinction, before surging into popularity due to the enthusiasm and experimentation of American craft brewers.

Gose explores the...

The judges of England and Wales – obliged by their oath of office to apply the law without fear or favour; the Magna Carta – a promise that no one will be denied justice; the rule of law – a promise that public officials, including judges, are bound by the law; Parliament – the sovereign law-maker to which the judges are subservient: is all this true or...

In the early 1970s, a single mother and her four children find themselves alone on the east coast of New South Wales. They join the ‘Back to the Earth Movement’ at the idyllic land known as ‘Tralfamadore’.

Lyn and her children choose a spot on a hill bound by a river and creek building a home using river stones and found objects. They sustain themselves...

The French Foreign Legion has gained a reputation as one of the most formidable of military institutions. Accepting volunteers from all parts of the globe, the Legion has acquired an aura of mystery – and a less than enviable reputation for brutality within its ranks. Voices of the Foreign Legion considers how recruits are selected and trained, where...

The popular image of the Vikings is of tall red-headed men, raping and pillaging their way around the coast of Europe, stopping only to ransack monasteries and burn longships. But the violent Vikings of the 8th century became the pious Christians of the 11th century, who gave gold crosses to Christian churches and in whose areas of rule pagan idols were...

A new biography of Queen Elizabeth II, focusing on her early life, with new research and insights.

As a 13-year-old girl, Princess Elizabeth fell in love with Prince Philip of Greece, an ambitious naval cadet, and they married when she was 21. When Elizabeth suddenly became Queen at 25, their lives changed forever. With previously unpublished material...

The New York Times bestseller 'Silicon Valley needed a history lesson and Ferguson has provided it' Eric Schmidt What if everything we thought we knew about history was wrong? From Niall Ferguson, the global bestselling author of Empire, The Ascent of Money and Civilization, this is a whole new way of imagining the world. Most history is hierarchical:...

From activist, Pussy Riot member and freedom fighter Maria Alyokhina, a raw, hallucinatory, passionate account of her arrest, trial and imprisonment in a penal colony in the Urals for standing up for what she believed in. 'One of the most brilliant and inspiring things I've read in years. Couldn't put it down. This book is freedom' Chris Kraus, author...

This book is based on a true event, the real life adventure of nine year-old Ariel Bradley. It reveals the anxiety of the Americans, who a battle in the first months of the Revolutionary War. It also shows George Washington’s keen sense of humor and his wily, perceptive view of his British adversaries.

Ariel Bradley is Washington’s boy spy who pretends to...

Murder by poison alarmed, enthralled, and in many ways encapsulated the Victorian age. Linda Stratmann's dark and splendid social history reveals the nineteenth century as a gruesome battleground where poisoners went head-to-head with authorities who strove to detect poisons, control their availability, and bring the guilty to justice. She corrects many...

Winner of the DUFF COOPER and LIONEL GELBER prizes. A Sunday Times, The Times, FT and Evening Standard book of the year 2017

The momentous new book from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gulag and Iron Curtain.

In 1932-33, nearly four million Ukrainians died of starvation, having been deliberately deprived of food. It is one of the most devastating...

A fascinating and revelatory exploration of the intricacies of Islam and the inner psyche of the Muslim world from the bestselling author of The Islamist

‘Islam began as a stranger,’ said the Prophet Mohammed, ‘and one day, it will again return to being a stranger.’

The gulf between Islam and the West is widening. A faith rich with strong values and...

Cimarron Girl: The Dust Bowl Years of Abigail Brubaker is a fictional recollection of young Abigail’s experiences on the family’s Oklahoma prairie farm, located in Cimarron, the heart of the Dust Bowl. Abby’s first-person account chronicles key episodes each year as the depth of the drought unfolds. As she grows, personal perspectives are woven from actual...

Children and adults under the age of 40 have forgotten about the Pullman Porter.

This book will teach children and adults, who the porters were and why they were

so important in our history. Porters worked in early train cars and because they

traveled the country and learned much, many Pullman porters became leaders back

in their home communities. They...

This is a Sampler of the Preface and first chapter.

FOYLES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR
BLACKWELL'S NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR
LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION
SHORTLISTED FOR A BOOKS ARE MY BAG READERS AWARD

The book that sparked a national conversation. Exploring everything from eradicated black history to the inextricable link...