How Putin and his entourage of KGB men seized power in Russia, controlling the economy through a fiefdom of oligarchs, and have used that wealth to extend their own influence.
This hardba... read more
Its second subtitle is "an adventurous history of botany". JG is a scientist and an historian of exploration (his "The Rattlesnake: A Voyage of Discovery to the Coral Sea" was excellent).
The idea that our ancestors turned from the hunted to the hunter; Calasso dazzles as ever; a rich evocation of the relationship of humans on the cusp of being and animals that were also bein... read more
A zesty account of archaeological wizardry, from Champollion's decipherment of hieroglyphics in 1822 to the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon.
An exuberant account of the importance to Modernism of what Truman Capote called "the all-time ultimate gallery of famous dykes" in Paris between the wars.
A superb narrative of the 'underside' of the Italian Renaissance: the Genoese and Neapolitans; the women writers, Jewish merchants, mercenaries, engineers, prostitutes, farmers and citizens ... read more
This is the first publication of Hugh Trevor-Roper's private journal of his visit to the People's Republic of China in 1965, shortly before the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution. It also d... read more
Anna Roosevelt, Sarah Churchill and Kathleen Harriman all accompanied their fathers to the Yalta Conference. This is an intriguing account of their involvement and influence on events.
From the C7th to the present day... It transported Vikings to the Caspian and was crucial in the Battle of Stalingrad... a remarkable account of diversity and strategic significance.
Berlin is defined by its many edges - the blurred edge between Huns and Slavs, pagan and Christian, the competing spheres of influence of Western Europe and Russia, autocracy and democracy, ... read more
Reinvention, escape, adventure, romance, survival... Not all the women were 'port out starboard home'. Gripping and entertaining social history from the author of 'Queen Bees'.
The story of London's notorious drinking den, the realm of the great and foul-mouthed Muriel Belcher. Constructed from interviews with many of its principal players.
Cities, economies and national infrastructures of every kind were reduced to rubble by the end of WW2. Betts looks at the efforts made by western European countries to rebuild their societi... read more
Demonstrates how constitutions evolved in tandem with warfare, and how they have functioned to advance empire as well as promote nations, and worked to exclude as well as liberate. LC is a b... read more