History and Current Events

Discover new releases in history and current events.

Updated September 8, 2025
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The eagle and the hart : the tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV
Castor, Helen
Paper Book
From an acclaimed historian comes an epic tale of power and betrayal: the dual biography of Richard II and Henry IV, two cousins whose tumultuous reigns shaped the course of English history. Richard of Bordeaux and Henry of Bolingbroke, cousins born just three months apart, were...
One day, everyone will have always been against this
El Akkad, Omar
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD * SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 PALESTINE BOOK AWARDS * From award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad comes a powerful reckoning with what it means to live in a West that betrays its fundamental...
Henry V : the astonishing triumph of England's greatest warrior king
Jones, Dan
Paper Book
"Ambitious... With meticulous research and in lively style, Jones presents us with the man beyond the Shakespeare character."--The New York Times "The best biography yet of England's greatest king."--Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The Romanovs and...
The message
Coates, Ta-Nehisi
Paper Book
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The renowned author of Between the World and Me journeys to three resonant sites of conflict to explore how the stories we tell--and the ones we don't--shape our realities. "Ta-Nehisi Coates always writes with a...
Oathbreakers: The War of Brothers That Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe
Gabriele, Matthew.
Paper Book
The authors of The Bright Ages return with a real-life Game of Thrones--the story of the Carolingian Civil War, a bloody, protracted battle pitting brother against brother, father against son, that would end an empire, upend a continent, and redefine the future of Europe By...
Book and dagger : how scholars and librarians became the unlikely spies of World War II
Graham, Elyse
Paper Book
The untold story of the academics who became OSS spies, invented modern spycraft, and helped turn the tide of the war At the start of WWII, the U.S. found itself in desperate need of an intelligence agency. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to today's CIA, was quickly...
The JFK conspiracy : the secret plot to kill Kennedy--and why it failed
Meltzer, Brad
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * AN AMAZON BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR SO FAR 2025 From the New York Times bestselling authors of The Nazi Conspiracy and The Lincoln Conspiracy comes a true, little-known story about the...
Rot : an imperial history of the Irish famine
Scanlan, Padraic X.
Paper Book
A "vigorous and engaging" (Fintan O'Toole, New Yorker) new history of the Irish Great Famine, showing how the British Empire caused Ireland's most infamous disaster In 1845, European potato fields from Spain to Scandinavia were attacked by a novel pathogen....
(un)kind : how 'be kind' entrenches sexism
Smith, Victoria
Paper Book
'Victoria Smith is a brilliant writer who every feminist should read' Sharron Davies 'This brilliant book shows how demands for compassion and generosity can be a mask for sexist ideology' Susanna Rustin A brilliantly witty and insightful analysis of how...
The Golden Road
Dalrymple, William.
Paper Book
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A Waterstones and TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR A SPECTATOR and History Today BOOK OF THE YEAR A revolutionary new history of the diffusion of Indian ideas...
Medieval Women
Jackson, E.
Paper Book
Beautifully illustrated, large format volume accompanies the British Library's major Autumn 2024 exhibition Through a selection of detailed expert essays and some 40 spotlight studies, Medieval Women reveals a rich and complex picture of their world, full of colourful characters and intriguing...
Propaganda girls : the secret war of the women in the OSS
Rogak, Lisa
Paper Book
The incredible untold story of four women who spun the web of deception that helped win World War II. Betty MacDonald was a 28-year-old reporter from Hawaii. Zuzka Lauwers grew up in a tiny Czechoslovakian village and knew five languages by the time she was 21. Jane...
Fifteen
Geroux, William
Paper Book
The revelatory true story of the long-forgotten POW camps for German soldiers erected in hundreds of small U.S. towns during World War II, and the secret Nazi killings that ensnared fifteen brave American POWs in a high-stakes showdown. "In the pantheon of American history, it...
War
Woodward, Bob
Paper Book
Chosen by WATERSTONES as one of their BEST POLITICS BOOKS of 2024 Two-time Pulitzer prize winner Bob Woodward tells the revelatory, behind-the-scenes story of three wars - Ukraine, the Middle East and the struggle for the American presidency.
Why nothing works : who killed progress--and how to bring it back
Dunkelman, Marc J.
Paper Book
A provocative exploration about the architecture of power, the forces that stifle us from getting things done, and how we can restore confidence in democratically elected government--"the best book to date on the biggest political issue that nobody is talking about" (Matthew Yglesias) ...
The memory palace : true short stories of the past
DiMeo, Nate
Paper Book
Incredible true stories reveal strange new magic in American history in this wondrous first book from the creator of the award-winning podcast The Memory Palace. "Nate DiMeo zooms in on stories of mishap, invention and adventure. . . . These brief historical lessons read...
The Vietnam War : a military history
Wawro, Geoffrey
Paper Book
"Remarkable... the best overview of America's misadventure in Southeast Asia, and it is sure to become the standard one-volume book on the war." - Thomas E. Ricks, New York Times The Vietnam War cast a shadow over the American psyche from the moment it began....
The Nazi mind : twelve warnings from history
Rees, Laurence
Paper Book
How could the Nazis have committed the crimes they did? Why did commandants of concentration and death camps willingly - often enthusiastically - oversee mass murder? How could ordinary Germans have tolerated the removal of the Jews? In THE NAZI MIND, bestselling author Laurence Rees combines...
Hope dies last : visionary people across the world, fighting to find us a future
Weisman, Alan
Paper Book
One of Heatmap's 18 Climate Books to Read in 2025 The award-winning environmental journalist's extraordinary, long-awaited portrait of hope and resilience as we face a fractured and uncertain future In this profoundly human and moving narrative, the...
The Last Dynasty: Ancient Egypt from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra
Wilkinson, Toby.
Paper Book
'A truly splendid read, richly detailed and powered by an unfailing gift for storytelling' John Guy 'Superb and gripping' Simon Sebag Montefiore A definitive and thrilling new account of the last great dynasty of ancient Egypt, from Alexander the Great...
Conspiracy theory : the story of an idea
Dunt, Ian
Paper Book
AN ORIGIN STORY BOOK 'Provides clarity, scholarship, wit and essential insight into why our world is the way it is' Adam Rutherford 'I wish I could make Ian and Dorian's work mandatory' Sathnam Sanghera What makes people believe in...
The waiting game : the untold story of the women who served the Tudor queens
Clark, Nicola (Associate lecturer in history)
Paper Book
'Written in a lively, accessible style, The Waiting Game is full of insight' Suzannah Lipscomb, Literary ReviewEvery Tudor Queen had ladies-in-waiting. They were her confidantes and her chaperones. Only the Queen's ladies had the right to enter her most private chambers,...
Abundance
Klein, Ezra.
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2025 "A must-read for progressives who want a blueprint for reforming government so it can deliver for working people." --Barack Obama * "A terrific book...Powerful and persuasive." --Fareed Zakaria...
The last tsar : the abdication of Nicholas II and the fall of the Romanovs
Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi
Paper Book
A HISTORY TODAY BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Impressive, often brilliant' THE TIMES 'Mesmerising and damning' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Certain to become the definitive work' DOUGLAS SMITH 'Elegantly written and...
Who is government? : the untold story of public service
Lewis, Michael
Paper Book
"Perhaps never before has there been a book better timed or more urgent." --Washington Post One of President Obama's 2025 Summer Reads As seen on CBS Mornings, CNN Anderson Cooper, ABC News Live, MSNBC Morning Joe, and many more ...
Freedom : memoirs 1954-2021
Merkel, Angela
Paper Book
'A great accomplishment . . . A wonderful reflection of an extraordinary sweep of history' Barack Obama Timely, intimate and important, the long-awaited memoirs from one of the most influential leaders of our times For 16 years, Angela Merkel was Chancellor...
Last seen : the enduring search by formerly enslaved people to find their lost families
Giesberg, Judith Ann
Paper Book
"[A] meticulously excavated tribute to the formerly enslaved mothers, fathers, siblings, and kin who published 'last seen' advertisements in search of loved ones stolen from them in bondage...a vital work of recovery." --Ilyon Woo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Master, Slave,...
El Cid: The Life and Afterlife of a Medieval Mercenary
Berend, Nora.
Paper Book
"Rodrigo Diaz lived a violently colourful life in eleventh-century Spain. An ambitious military leader, exile and brutal mercenary, he served Christian kings, fought against Christian princes in service of Muslim rulers, raided and killed Muslims and eventually struck out on his own, carving out an...
Illegals
Walker, Shaun
Paper Book
A pacy, character-driven history of the KGB's deepest cover spies in the West, a system that took decades to unravel
Death Is Our Business: Russian Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare
Lechner, John.
Paper Book
"Extraordinary."-CHRIS MILLER, author of Chip War "Incredible."-ANNIE JACOBSEN, author of Nuclear War, via X From John Lechner, "an amazingly bold reporter" (Adam Hochschild), the shocking inside story of how the Wagner Group made...
The secret history of the Five Eyes : the untold story of the international spy network
Kerbaj, Richard
Paper Book
The first published account of the Five Eyes, the elite spy network created by Britain and the United States that industrialised espionage operations.
The forbidden garden of Leningrad : a true story of science and sacrifice in a city under siege
Parkin, Simon
Paper Book
FINALIST FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2025 An Economist Book of the Year 'An astonishing story brilliantly told . . . It is as moving as it is gripping to read' Jonathan Dimbleby, author of Endgame 1944 'A...
The folly of realism : how the West deceived itself about Russia and betrayed Ukraine
Vindman, Alexander S.
Paper Book
An Instant New York Times Bestseller  A chilling analysis of how Western indecision and apathy made possible the return of brutal Russian expansionism with catastrophic consequences - "A must-read for anyone who wants to understand what went...

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