Showing titles in History

Oleg Gordievsky was the highest ranking KGB officer ever to work for Britain. For 11 years, he acted as a secret agent, reporting to the British Secret Intelligence Service while continuing to work as a KGB officer. He gave such a clear insight into the mind and methods of the KGB and the whole system of Soviet government that he has been credited with doing more than any other individual in the West to accelerate the collapse of Communism. 

Sarah is a journalist obsessed with the past. Every week she reconsiders a person or event that's been miscast in the public imagination.

A New York Times Editors' Choice A Military Times Best Book of the Year A powerfully written firsthand account of the human costs of conflict. J. Kael Weston spent seven years on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan working for the U.S. State Department in some of the most dangerous frontline...

Who was Napoleon Bonaparte? What was his legacy on history? And why, more than 200 years later, does the conflict which he gave his name to still matter? Join award-winning Napoleonic historians Dr Zack White, Dr Luke Reynolds, and Liam Telfer as they host Europe's leading show devoted to the American War of Independence, French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. From interviews with leading researchers, to deep dive debates on some of the big questions, this show is ideal for those who want to start building their knowledge or deepen their understanding of the period.

D-Day, 6 June 1944, the turning point of the Second World War, was a victory of arms. But it was also a triumph for a different kind of operation: one of deceit, aimed at convincing the Nazis that Calais and Norway, not Normandy, were the targets of the 150,000-strong invasion force. The deception involved every branch of Allied wartime intelligence - the Bletchley Park code-breakers, MI5, MI6, SOE, Scientific Intelligence, the FBI and the French Resistance. But at its heart was the 'Double Cross System', a team of double agents controlled by the secret Twenty Committee.

Great stories from around the coasts of Britain and Ireland brought to you by Charlie Connelly, author of the bestselling 'Attention All Shipping: A Journey Round The Shipping Forecast'. Take fifteen minutes out of your day for a true maritime tale of the heroic, disastrous, startling, hilarious, mysterious, tragic or just plain WTF. "Charming...with the soothing sound of lapping waves in the background Connelly captivates with maritime tales from the past decades and centuries. It's simple but effective storytelling." Irish Examiner "Relax and let author Charlie Connelly’s soothing ...

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Berlin by Antony Beevor, read by Peter Noble. Berlin: The Downfall 1945 is Antony Beevor's brilliant account of the fall of the Third Reich. The Red Army had much to avenge when it finally reached the frontiers of the Reich in...

Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 'An insightful and important book, that often reads like a good thriller, and that exposes the danger of mixing powerful technology with irresponsible politics' - Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens 'As moving as it is painstakingly researched. . . a...

The story of our world and the different living things that have populated it is an amazing epic with millions of species, exotic settings, planet-wide cataclysms, and surprising plot twists. These 36 lectures tell the all-embracing story of life on Earth - its origins, extinctions, and evolutions - in a manner that assumes no background in science. At half an hour per lecture, you’ll cover the entire 4.54-billion-year history of Earth in 18 hours, averaging 70,000 years per second!

Brought to you by Penguin. The riveting account of SAS action in the Falklands war After passing the world's toughest Special Forces selection and joining the elite ranks of D Squadron, 22 SAS in 1979, Mark 'Splash' Aston thought the hard part was over. Then on April 2 1982 Argentina invaded the...

A BBC History magazine, Esquire, Historia magazine and Waterstones History Book of the Year 'James comes alive in full flamboyance … Russell expertly weaves the bedchamber gossip into the tapestry of a tumultuous reign' SUNDAY TIMES 'Brings the backbiting and power struggles of the Jacobean...

Born ‘a ragged-arsed kid from the backstreets of Glasgow’, McCallion joined the Paras to escape a miserable home life and find the family he longed for. After six tense tours in Ulster, McCallion gave up everything to move to South Africa in the hope of qualifying for the highly elite South African Special Forces. Having succeeded in joining the Recces, McCallion was involved in plots to assassinate Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo.

Born in Chicago in 1897, 'Chips' Channon settled in England after the Great War, married into the immensely wealthy Guinness family, and served as Conservative MP for Southend-on-Sea from 1935 until his death in 1958. His career was unremarkable. His diaries are quite the opposite. Elegant, gossipy and bitchy by turns, they are the unfettered observations of a man who went everywhere and who knew everybody. 

When civil rights protests in the 1960s gave way to armed struggle, the Provisional IRA in Derry–both city and county–led the fight against the British security forces. In the city Martin McGuinness–a young butcher’s assistant from the Bogside–quickly rose through the ranks, launching a bombing campaign that reduced the city centre to rubble. In tandem, the IRA’s active service units fought the British Army in the streets and alleys of the Bogside, Creggan, Shantallow and the Waterside.

This series of 36 fascinating lectures is a chronological journey into the story of Victorian Britain, from the unexpected ascension to the throne of teenaged Princess Victoria in 1837 to her death in 1901 as the Boer War neared its end.Presented with all of Victoria's strengths and foibles left intact by an award-winning teacher and author, the lectures invite you to reflect on both the positive and negative aspects of her reign.

'An extraordinary book' DAILY EXPRESS 'Revelatory ... Ms Jacobsen has put together a set of strong allegations about Area 51's covert history ... Her research is compellingly hard-hitting' NEW YORK TIMES It is the most famous military installation in the world. And no credible insider has ever...

Edward’s life is one of the most extraordinary in all English history. He ordered his uncle to be beheaded, he usurped his father’s throne and he started a war which lasted for more than a hundred years. He took the crown when it was at its lowest point and raised it to new heights, presenting himself as a new King Arthur, victorious across Europe. He was the architect of many English icons - from parliamentary rule to the adoption of English as the official language and even the building of a great clock tower at Westminster. 

This is a unique single-volume history of the road to El Alamein - 'the end of the beginning' - and the bloody battle that followed...It was the British victory at the Battle of El Alamein in November 1942 that inspired one of Churchill's most famous aphorisms: 'it is not the end nor is it the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning'. And yet the true significance of this iconic episode remains unrecognised.

In this, the first prose history in European civilization, Herodotus describes the growth of the Persian Empire with force, authority, and style. Perhaps most famously, the book tells the heroic tale of the Greeks' resistance to the vast invading force assembled by Xerxes, king of Persia. Here are not only the great battles - Marathon, Thermopylae, and Salamis - but also penetrating human insight and a powerful sense of epic destiny at work.

Uncovering World Mythology: The Ultimate Collection (5 Books in 1) invites you to explore five timeless mythologies that have shaped civilizations and inspired millions. Whether you're new to mythology or a lifelong fan, this immersive experience will transport you to the heart of each culture's ancient world.