No Turning Back - Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria by Rania Abouzeid

$27.00 NZD

Category: History

Extending back to the first demonstrations of 2011, No Turning Back dissects the tangle of ideologies and allegiances that make up the Syrian conflict. As protests ignited in Daraa, some citizens were brimming with a sense of possibility. A privileged young man named Suleiman posted videos of the protes ts online, full of hope for justice and democracy. A father of two named Mohammad, secretly radicalized and newly released from prison, saw a darker opportunity in the unrest. When violence broke out in Homs, a poet named Abu Azzam became an unlikely commander in a Free Syrian Army militia. The regime's brutal response disrupted a family in Idlib province, where a nine-year-old girl opened the door to a military raid that caused her father to flee. As the bombings increased and roads grew more dangerous, these people's lives intertwined in unexpected ways.Rania Abouzeid brings readers deep inside Assad's prisons, to covert meetings where foreign states and organizations manipulated the rebels, and to the highest levels of Islamic militancy and the formation of ISIS. Based on more than five years of clandestine reporting on the front lines, No Turning Back is an utterly engrossing human drama full of vivid, indelible characters that shows how hope can flourish even amid one of the twenty-first century's greatest humanitarian disasters. ...Show more

Koh-I-Noor by William Dalrymple; Anita Anand

$22.00 NZD

Category: History

The first comprehensive and authoritative history of the Koh-i-Noor, arguably the most celebrated and mythologised jewel in the world. On 29 March 1849, the ten-year-old maharaja of the Punjab was ushered into the magnificent Mirrored Hall at the centre of the great fort in Lahore. There, in a public c eremony, the frightened but dignified child handed over great swathes of the richest country in India in a formal Act of Submission to a private corporation, the East India Company. He was also compelled to hand over to the British monarch, Queen Victoria, perhaps the single most valuable object on the subcontinent- the celebrated Koh-i Noor diamond. The Mountain of Light. The history of the Koh-i-Noor that was then commissioned by the British may have been one woven together from gossip of Delhi bazaars, but it was to become the accepted version. Only now is it finally challenged, freeing the diamond from the fog of mythology that has clung to it for so long. The resulting history is one of greed, murder, torture, colonialism and appropriation told through an impressive slice of south and central Asian history. It ends with the jewel in its current controversial setting- in the crown of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Masterly, powerful and erudite, this is history at its most compelling and invigorating. ...Show more

Tales from the Captain's Log by The National Archives

$40.00 NZD

Category: History

For centuries, ships' commanders kept journals that recorded their missions. These included voyages of discovery to unknown lands, engagements in war and sea and general trade. Many of their logs, diaries and letters were lodged at The National Archives and give a vivid picture of the situations that th ey encountered. Entries range from Captain James Cook's notes of his discovery of the South Pacific and Australia, to logs of the great naval battles, such as Waterloo and Trafalgar. From the ships that attempted to stop piracy in the Caribbean, to the surgeons who recorded the health of the men they tended and naturalists who noted the exotic plants and animals they encountered, comes a fascinating picture of life at sea, richly illustrated with maps, drawings and facsimile documents found alongside the logs in the archives. ...Show more

Man-made Wonders of the World by DK

$70.00 NZD

Category: History

Discover the most incredible man-made wonders, from Stonehenge to Burj Khalifa, with this unparalleled catalogue of the most amazing, famous, and intriguing buildings and monuments ever created by humans. Manmade Wonders of the Worldfeatures a range of structures from buildings to monuments, statues, an d bridges, including the Golden Gate Bridge and Hoover Dam. It opens with a foreword by Dan Cruickshank and then takes the reader on a continent-by-continent journey, exploring and charting the innovations, ingenuity, and imagination employed by different cultures to create iconic buildings such as the Great Pyramid of Giza. This truly global approach reveals how humans tackled similar challenges, such as keeping the enemy out, in vastly different parts of the world, from the Great Wall of China to the defensive walls of Central American cities. Illustrations show floorplans and cutaway views, while explanations cover the history, architecture, and unique stories behind their construction. Featuring breathtaking images, Manmade Wonders of the World is a complete celebration of the world humans have built over thousands of years. ...Show more

The Gene: An Intimate History (PB) by Siddhartha Mukherjee

$30.00 NZD

Category: History | Reading Level: very good

This book was selected as a New York Times Non-Fiction Book of the Year. The New York Times Number one Bestseller BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. "Dramatic and precise...[A] thrilling and comprehensive account of what seems certain to be the most radical, controversial and, to borrow from the subtitle, in timate science of our time...He is a natural storyteller...A page-turner...Read this book and steel yourself for what comes next." (Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times). The Gene is the story of one of the most powerful and dangerous ideas in our history, from bestselling, prize-winning author Siddhartha Mukherjee. Spanning the globe and several centuries, The Gene is the story of the quest to decipher the master-code that makes and defines humans, that governs our form and function. This is an epic, moving history of a scientific idea coming to life, by the author of The Emperor of All Maladies. But woven through The Gene, like a red line, is also an intimate history - the story of Mukherjee's own family and its recurring pattern of mental illness, reminding us that genetics is vitally relevant to everyday lives. These concerns reverberate even more urgently today as we learn to "read" and "write" the human genome - unleashing the potential to change the fates and identities of our children. The story of the gene begins in an obscure Augustinian abbey in Moravia in 1856 where a monk stumbles on the idea of a 'unit of heredity'. It intersects with Darwin's theory of evolution, and collides with the horrors of Nazi eugenics in the 1940s. The gene transforms post-war biology. It reorganizes our understanding of sexuality, temperament, choice and free will. This is a story driven by human ingenuity and obsessive minds - from Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel to Francis Crick, James Watson and Rosalind Franklin, and the thousands of scientists still working to understand the code of codes. Majestic in its ambition, and unflinching in its honesty, The Gene gives us a definitive account of the fundamental unit of heredity - and a vision of both humanity's past and future. ...Show more

The Spy Toolkit by Stephen Twigge

$20.00 NZD

Category: History

The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee - Native America from 1890 to the Present by David Treuer

$38.00 NZD

Category: History

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER   "Chapter after chapter, it's like one shattered myth after another." - NPR"An informed, moving and kaleidoscopic portrait... Treuer's powerful book suggests the need for soul-searching about the meanings of American history and the stories we tell ourselves about this na tion's past.." - New York Times Book Review, front page   A sweeping history--and counter-narrative--of Native American life from the Wounded Knee massacre to the present.   The received idea of Native American history--as promulgated by books like Dee Brown's mega-bestselling 1970 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee--has been that American Indian history essentially ended with the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. Not only did one hundred fifty Sioux die at the hands of the U. S. Cavalry, the sense was, but Native civilization did as well.   Growing up Ojibwe on a reservation in Minnesota, training as an anthropologist, and researching Native life past and present for his nonfiction and novels, David Treuer has uncovered a different narrative. Because they did not disappear--and not despite but rather because of their intense struggles to preserve their language, their traditions, their families, and their very existence--the story of American Indians since the end of the nineteenth century to the present is one of unprecedented resourcefulness and reinvention.   In The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee, Treuer melds history with reportage and memoir. Tracing the tribes' distinctive cultures from first contact, he explores how the depredations of each era spawned new modes of survival. The devastating seizures of land gave rise to increasingly sophisticated legal and political maneuvering that put the lie to the myth that Indians don't know or care about property. The forced assimilation of their children at government-run boarding schools incubated a unifying Native identity. Conscription in the US military and the pull of urban life brought Indians into the mainstream and modern times, even as it steered the emerging shape of self-rule and spawned a new generation of resistance. The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee is the essential, intimate story of a resilient people in a transformative era. ...Show more

Saga Land: The Island of Stories at the Edge of the World by Richard Fidler; Kari Gislason

$35.00 NZD

Category: History | Reading Level: very good

A new friendship. An unforgettable journey. A beautiful and bloody history. This is Iceland as you've never read it before ... Broadcaster Richard Fidler and author Kári Gíslason are good friends. They share a deep attachment to the sagas of Iceland - the true stories of the first Viking families who se ttled on that remote island in the Middle Ages. These are tales of blood feuds, of dangerous women, and people who are compelled to kill the ones they love the most. The sagas are among the greatest stories ever written, but the identity of their authors is largely unknown. Together, Richard and Kári travel across Iceland, to the places where the sagas unfolded a thousand years ago. They cross fields, streams and fjords to immerse themselves in the folklore of this fiercely beautiful island. And there is another mission: to resolve a longstanding family mystery - a gift from Kari's Icelandic father that might connect him to the greatest of the saga authors. ...Show more

Barbarians at the Wall: The First Nomadic Empire and the Making of China by John Man

$28.00 NZD

Category: History

'Man does for the reader that most difficult of tasks: he conjures up an ancient people in an alien landscape in such a way as to make them live.' Guardian____________________ The people of the first nomadic empire left no written records, but from 200 BC they dominated the heart of Asia for 400 years. They changed the world. The Mongols, today's descendants of Genghis Khan, see them as ancestors. Their rise cemented Chinese unity and inspired the first Great Wall. Their heirs under Attila the Hun helped destroy the Roman Empire. We don't know what language they spoke, but they became known as Xiongnu, or Hunnu, a term passed down the centuries and across Eurasia, enduring today in shortened form as 'Hun'. Outside Asia precious little is known of their rich history, but new evidence reframes our understanding of the indelible mark they left on a vast region stretching from Europe and sweeping right across Central Asia deep into China. Based on meticulous research and new archaeological evidence, Barbarians at the Wall traces their epic story, and shows how the nomadic cultures of the steppes gave birth to a 'barbarian empire' with the wealth and power to threaten the civilised order of the ancient world. ...Show more

Queens of the Crusades: Eleanor of Aquitaine and Her Successors by Alison Weir

$40.00 NZD

Category: History | Series: England's Medieval Queens

The Plantagenet queens of England played a role in some of the most dramatic events in our history. Crusading queens, queens in rebellion against their king, queen seductresses, learned queens, queens in battle, queens who enlivened England with the romantic culture of southern Europe - these determined women often broke through medieval constraints to exercise power and influence, for good and sometimes for ill. Alison Weir's ground-breaking history of the queens of medieval England now moves into a period of even higher drama, from 1154 to 1291- years of chivalry, dynastic ambition, conflict with the church, baronial wars, and the all-pervading bonds of feudalism. We see events such as the murder of Becket, Magna Carta and the birth of parliaments from a new perspective. Her narrative begins with the formidable Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose marriage to Henry II establishes a dynasty which rules for over three hundred years and creates the most powerful empire in western Christendom - but also sows the seeds for some of the most destructive family conflicts in history and for the collapse, under her son King John, of England's power in Europe. The lives of Eleanor's successors were just as remarkable- Berengaria of Navarre, queen of Richard the Lionheart, Isabella of Angoulame, queen of John, and Alienor of Provence, queen of Henry III, and finally Eleanor of Castile, the grasping but beloved wife of Edward I. Through the story of these first five Plantagenet queens, Alison Weir provides an enthralling new perspective on a dramatic period of high romance and sometimes low politics, with determined women at its heart. ...Show more

Ancient Bones - UnEarthing the Astonishing new story of how we became human by Madelaine Bohme; Rüdiger Braun; Florian Breier

$40.00 NZD

Category: History

A leading paleontologist discovers the missing link in human evolution. Somewhere west of Munich, Madelaine B hme and her colleagues dig for clues to the origins of humankind. What they discover is beyond anything they imagined- the fossilised bones of Danuvius guggenmosiignite a global media frenzy. T his ancient ancestor defies our knowledge of human history - his nearly twelve-million-year-old bones were not located in Africa - the so-called birthplace of humanity - but in Europe, and his features suggest we evolved much differently than scientists once believed. In prose that reads like a gripping detective novel, Ancient Bonesinterweaves the story of the dig that changed everything with the fascinating answer to a previously undecided and now pressing question- How, exactly, did we become human? Placing B hme's discovery alongside former theories of human evolution, the authors show how this remarkable find (and others in Eurasia) are forcing us to rethink the story we've been told about how we came to be, a story that has been our guiding narrative - until now ...Show more

Agent Sonya: Lover, Mother, Soldier, Spy by Ben Macintyre

$40.00 NZD

Category: History

In the quiet Cotswolds village of Great Rollright in 1945, an elegant housewife emerged from her cottage to go on her usual bike ride. A devoted wife and mother-of-three, Mrs Burton seemed to epitomise rural British domesticity.However, rather than pedalling towards the shops with her ration book, she w as racing through the Oxfordshire countryside to gather scientific intelligence from one of the country's most brilliant nuclear physicists. Secrets that she would transmit to Soviet intelligence headquarters via the radio transmitter she was hiding in her outdoor privy. Far from a British housewife, Mrs Burton - born Ursula Kuczynski, and codenamed 'Sonya' - was a German Jew, a dedicated communist, a colonel in Russia's Red Army, and a highly-trained spy. From planning an assassination attempt on Hitler in Switzerland, to spying on the Japanese in Manchuria, and helping the Soviet Union build the atom bomb, Sonya conducted some of the most dangerous espionage operations of the twentieth century. Her story has never been told - until now. Agent Sonya is the exhilarating account of one woman's life; a life that encompasses the rise and fall of communism itself, and altered the course of history. ...Show more