Political Biographies

Churchill: 'A full and wholly fair representation of the most adventurous life in the history of British politics...there is not a word I would have changed in the text of this excellent graphical account' - Andrew Roberts. 'A wholly original and fresh approach to historical biography. Churchill would have been delighted to be a comic book hero!' - Phil Reed,...

The bitter struggle of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, against the Turkish state has delivered inspirational but often tragic stories. This memoir by Kurdish revolutionary Sakine Cansiz is one of them. Sakine, whose code name was Sara, co-founded the PKK in 1974 and dedicated her life to its cause. On the 9 January 2013 she was assassinated in Paris...

A grand and fascinating figure in Victorian politics, the charismatic Lord Palmerston (1784–1865) served as foreign secretary for fifteen years and prime minister for nine. He engaged in struggles with everyone from the Duke of Wellington to Lord John Russell to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, engineered the defeat of the Russians in the Crimean War, and played a major...

An incredible tale. – The Daily Mail Prolific armed robber. Close ally of Joey Pyle. Friend and fellow inmate of the Kray twins. Last man to stand trial with a Kray brother. First prisoner in the notorious Belmarsh Unit … Welcome to Ronnie Field's world. There was a code. It's not there now. The public weren't in general danger from...

A Clean Hell: Anarchy and Abolition in America's Most Notorious Dungeon by Eric King is a searing firsthand account from inside the most repressive prison in the United States, a place built not for rehabilitation but for disappearance. The federal supermax ADX Florence is the most secure facility in the United States, a dungeon of isolation, sensory deprivation, and psychological...

PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR NONFICTION • KIRKUS PRIZE WINNER • From the author of the landmark bestseller Lawrence in Arabia comes a stunningly revelatory narrative history of the Iranian Revolution, one of the most momentous events in modern times....

The story of the elite generals who built up - and ultimately ruined - one of the greatest warriors in history, from the award-winning, Sunday Times bestselling author of Churchill and Napoleon. In 1804, immediately after his coronation as Emperor, Napoleon created the Marshalate, the supreme martial rank of the empire. Over the next decade, he elevated to it some...

I used to be not a follower of Mahatma Gandhi. However, one day I came across his autobiography named The Story of My Experiments with Truth in the library. I decided to issue it, just out of curiosity, to read something about the father of my nation in his own words. It took me only two days to complete the...

The first full-length biography of a much maligned—but astonishingly colourful—Queen of England. Described by Christopher Marlowe as the 'She-Wolf of France', Isabella was one of the most notorious femme fatales in history. According to popular legend, her angry ghost can be glimpsed among church ruins, clutching the beating heart of her murdered husband. But how did Isabella acquire this reputation?...

The powerful true story of the first flight across the Atlantic - and of the ordinary heroes who risked their lives to race in pursuit of progress. A non-stop flight across the Atlantic might seem routine today. But it is only possible because of those who went first. Vivid and compelling - John Lancaster A delectable serving of escapist nostalgia...

Filled with sparkling anecdotes and tales of living life to the full, featuring previously unseen photographs from Lady Glenconner's personal collection.Lady Anne Glenconner, Lady-in-Waiting to Princess Margaret and Maid of Honour at the Queen's Coronation, returns with a rich, sparkling memoir told through an A to Z of her life. From affairs of the heart and Basil's Bar to dinners...

From the author of Bad Girls of Ancient Greece comes a new collection, covering tales of lore from bad boys and more… Myths and legends would be nothing without their shining star of a hero at the forefront, right? But what about those sidekicks and minor characters so often scrubbed out of the story?From honoured heroes such as Heracles, to...

A biography of an influential radical conservative who sought to unite the far right Willis Carto and the American Far Right offers a comprehensive look into the life of Willis Carto (1926-2015), arguably the most important radical conservative in postwar America. Best known as the founder of the infamous Liberty Lobby, he significantly influenced the far right's stance on issues...

The first biography of a neglected but crucial revolutionary figure and fascinating window into his world Study the American Revolution and you might miss the name Robert Carter Nicholas; study Robert Carter Nicholas and you will see the entire revolution. This is the first biography of the Virginia patriot who served in the House of Burgesses and has gone down...

“An insightful study of a president who listened to even his harshest critics with grace and humility.”—The Washington Post NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY GLAMOUR Every evening for eight years, at his request, President Obama was given ten handpicked letters written by ordinary American citizens—the unfiltered voice of a nation—from his Office of Presidential Correspondence....

NOW A NETFLIX SERIES - BOOTS In The Pink Marine, Greg Cope White's sharp, funny, and unexpectedly moving memoir, he recounts how an insecure New Orleans weakling transforms into a Devil Dog Marine. A coming-of-age story set in the most unlikely place: boot camp. When Greg's straight best friend Dale tells him he's spending the summer at Marine Corps boot...

The beloved New York Times bestseller [A] narrative of unfathomable courage ―Wall Street Journal The Nine follows the true story of the author's great aunt Hélène Podliasky, who led a band of nine female resistance fighters as they escaped a German forced labour camp and made a ten-day journey across the front lines of WWII from Germany back to Paris....

The hair on the back of my neck stood straight up as I watched the flames devour the forest faster than a man could run. The fire was outflanking us and was burning faster than we could dig a hand line. If it got behind us, our escape route would be gone. There would be no place to go. Our...

Drawing on a wide range of source materials from across Scotland, Scottish Women provides new insights into women's attitudes towards the society in which they lived, and how they negotiated their identities within private and public life. Organised in thematic chapters, it moves from the private and intimate experiences of sexuality, health, and sickness to Scotswomen's migrations across the British...

Winner of the 2006 Booker Worthen Literary Prize and the 2004 Ragsdale Award A dominating spirit of public service animated the life of Sidney Sanders McMath (1912–2003), the thirty-fourth governor of Arkansas. Promises Kept, completed and published when McMath was in his nineties, tells his story in his own words—from the piney hills of South Arkansas to the battlefields of...

Behind the gates of Camp David—where presidents find solitude, forge diplomacy, and shape history in absolute secrecy. The Presidential Retreat Camp David is shrouded in mystery, and rightfully so. The hidden retreat atop the Catoctin Mountains is the one place the President, First Family, and invited guests can gather in absolute secrecy for relaxation, rejuvenation, and world-changing decisions. Because of...

When Jens Stoltenberg took office as secretary general of NATO in 2014, the world was already changing. What followed was a decade marked by war, diplomatic crises, and decisions that helped shape the West’s shared security. On My Watch takes readers behind closed doors and offers rare insight into how the world’s most powerful military alliance handles crises. Stoltenberg describes...

Monopoly, Finance, and the Crisis of Capitalism is the first-ever biography of the scholar who brought Marxian theory to the English-speaking world. Paul M. Sweezy was one of the greatest political economists of the twentieth century. Born in 1910, his upbringing during the Depression deepened his understanding of capitalism, especially its tendency toward stagnation—the inability of capitalist economies to generate...

Madrigal of Seas and Summits is a vivid and deeply personal memoir by Denis Clift, chronicling a lifetime of public service shaped by determination and human connection. Together with Gretchen, his wife and unwavering partner, Clift navigated a remarkable career that took him from polar expeditions to the heart of Washington power. Born in New York City, Clift didn't coast—he...

Experience the captivating journey of a trailblazing woman who defied conventions and created a lasting legacy. Born at the start of the Civil War, Juliette "Daisy" Gordon Low struggled to reconcile being a good Southern belle with being true to her adventurous spirit. Accidentally deafened, she married a dashing British patrician and moved to England, where she quickly became dissatisfied...

Jesse Helms (1921–2008) dominated the political landscape of North Carolina during the last half of the twentieth century. Though Helms’s thirty years in the US Senate are most remembered for what he opposed rather than what he achieved, he was a central figure in modern conservatism. In this concise interpretive biography, William A. Link centres Helms in the political realignment...

Lynda Van Devanter was the girl next door, the cheerleader who went to Catholic schools, enjoyed sports, and got along well with her four sisters and parents. After high school, she attended nursing school and then did something that would shatter her secure world for the rest of her life: in 1969, she joined the army and was shipped to...

This is a book about war. A war against America's enemies, against racism, against the loss of fellow warriors in battle, and against the personal loss of family back home. This is the story of Major James Capers, Jr. (USMC Ret.). Jim was born to a family of sharecroppers in South Carolina who escaped to Baltimore, Maryland in the dead...

Zaynab Fawwaz (c.1860-1914) was a forceful voice in support of women's rights to education and work choices in colonial-era Egypt. Her volume of 453 women's lives, al-Durr al-manthur fi tabaqat rabbat al-khudur (Pearls scattered in times and places: Classes of ladies of cloistered spaces, 1893-6), featuring Boudicca, Catherine the Great, Zaynab (the granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad), Victoria Woodhull, the...

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 formed—and, in an effort to fill its ranks with experts,...

My interests are American History and the English language. Historical novels and biographies such as Rabble In Arms and To Kill a Mockingbird hold a prominent place in my collection. I was fascinated by stories from my grandfather about working at the locks on the Erie Canal, or hearing my dad talk about his childhood. I never lost that desire...

At the age of nine, Janina David was leading a sheltered life with her prosperous Jewish family in Poland. One year later, they were all facing starvation in the Warsaw ghetto. In her memoirs of a wartime childhood, A Square of Sky, Janina David describes the family's struggle against insurmountable odds. When it became clear that none of them was...

In A Southern Moderate in Radical Times, David I. Durham offers a comprehensive and critical appraisal of one of the South's famous dissenters. Against the backdrop of one of the most turbulent periods in American history, he explores the ideological and political journey of Henry Washington Hilliard (1808–1892), a southern politician whose opposition to secession placed him at odds with...

Xerxes: The first full-scale account of a Persian king vilified by history. Xerxes, Great King of the Persian Empire from 486–465 B.C., has gone down in history as an angry tyrant full of insane ambition. The stand of Leonidas and the 300 against his army at Thermopylae is a byword for courage, while the failure of Xerxes’ expedition has overshadowed...

'A terrific read' Andy McNab In November 1942, two nights after the Battle of El Alamein, a young British army officer was captured. As the Nazis deliberated about what to do with him, Richard Carver had particular reason to be afraid: unknown to anyone, he was the stepson of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, the Allied Commander who had just inflicted...

[A] deeply researched, keenly analytical, and frequently provocative chronicle of this singular judicial entity. . . . A senior legal analyst for CNN and former assistant U.S. attorney, Honig is well-suited to the task of providing a historical overview of the special counsel's function with the ever-evolving context of politics, partisanship and political scepticism." —Booklist (STARRED review) "A fascinating, fast-paced...

An accessible and authoritative biography of Walter Benjamin that guides the reader through the complexity of his intellectual legacy and the turbulence of his time. Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) is widely considered one of the most creative cultural critics of the twentieth century. Esteemed for his literary acumen and capacious imagination, he developed a unique style of criticism—his friend Hannah Arendt...

From British country homes to Republican Spain and civil rights America, the inspiring, wildly entertaining story of Jessica Mitford—investigative journalist, radical activist, renegade aristocrat. Jessica 'Decca' Mitford was raised to marry well, not fight for others' rights. Yet she rejected her eccentric, blue-blooded roots, running away from England to become an anti-fascist and anti-racist. Why is this rebellious heroine less...

'Propulsive... Readers will be hooked' - Publishers Weekly Based on the extraordinary true story of Alfred Nakache, subject of the Oscar-nominated short film Papillon. Alfred Nakache, a Jewish child from Constantine, never imagined that he would one day swim for France at the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936, nor that he would achieve a world record, as he did...

A thrilling new biography of Dwight Eisenhower set in the months leading up to D-Day, when he grew from a well-liked general into one of the singular figures of American history. "This is hands-down the most deeply researched, sensitive, intimate, and nuanced portrait of Eisenhower." —DAVID KENNEDY, recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for History "A masterly portrait." —General WESLEY CLARK...

A gripping royal saga of charmed lives in a changing world. The Jaipurs were India's mid-century golden couple; its answer to the Kennedys, or Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. Jai and Ayesha, as they were known to friends like Frank Sinatra, Truman Capote, and 'Dickie' Mountbatten, entertained lavishly at their magnificent palaces and hunting lodges in Rajasthan—and in the nightclubs...

WESTMINSTER BOOK AWARD WINNER – Best Non-Fiction or Fiction by a Parliamentarian 'An extraordinary story' - David Williamson, Chief Political Commentator at the Daily Express 'Lovely book ... a lot of unknown stories in there' – Paul Hawksbee, talkSPORT 'Excellent… a compelling analysis, drawing on social, political and military history, eye-opening but enlivened throughout by his keen eye for the...

Exhilarating and immensely valuable - Priyamvada Gopal, Professor at the University of Cambridge Rosa Luxemburg, Claudia Jones and Leila Khaled may have joined Lenin, Mao and Che in the pantheon of twentieth-century revolutionaries, but the histories in which they figure remain unjustly dominated by men. She Who Struggles sets the record straight, revealing how women have contributed to revolutionary movements...

Scipio Africanus (235-183 BC) commanded his first army at the age of 25, led a daring invasion in Africa to personally defeat Hannibal, and secured Rome's dominance over the Mediterranean. In ten years of command, he never lost a battle, employing bold strategies to triumph over six enemy generals. Charismatic, ruthless, and self-confident almost to the point of arrogance, Scipio...

This selection of Portraits: The Forgotten Individuals Who Shaped History gives pride of place to the secondary figures who make the wheels of history whir and thrum. They include Churchill's half-forgotten right-hand man, a leading light of the Parisian Belle Epoque lost to history, and an early space pioneer virtually unknown outside of his native Russia. History belongs not only...

An essential biography and historical document, Ishi's deeply moving life story is critical to understanding the legacies of white violence and Indigenous survival on the land we call California. First published in 1961, Ishi in Two Worlds tells the life story of the last known surviving member of the Yahi people, an indigenous community decimated by invasion and genocide at...

This is the first full-length biography of Enver Hoxha, the communist dictator who ruled Albania for nearly half a century. Hoxha was an unreformed Stalinist who was propelled to power with Soviet and Yugoslav help following the defeat of the Axis powers, though he soon broke with his former allies and built a Chairman Mao-like political cult in his tiny...

O'Connor's life was both a triumph and a tragedy. He pulled himself up from disadvantaged beginnings in a famine-torn Ireland to become a master of his profession, inspired and inspiring to others. By his own energy, probity, vision and application, it could be written of him at his death that 'no engineer [had] done more than he for an individual...

Presenting startling new biographical details about Timothy McVeigh and exposing stark contradictions and errors contained in previous depictions of the "All-American Terrorist," this book traces McVeigh's life from childhood to the Army, throughout the plot to bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and the period after his 1995 arrest until his 2001 execution. McVeigh's life, as Dr. Wendy Painting...

Relentless, raw, and just impossible to fake. Bram Connolly has survived more in one lifetime than most of us could ever imagine - and takes us right there, with a soldier's honesty and a storyteller's heart. DANIEL MACPHERSON, award-winning actor and presenter For more than two decades, Bram Connolly's life was a relentless march through some of the world's most...

"Life can be beautiful if you make it beautiful. It is up to you." Eddie Jaku always considered himself a German first, a Jew second. He was proud of his country. But all of that changed in November 1938, when he was beaten, arrested and taken to a concentration camp. Over the next seven years, Eddie faced unimaginable horrors every...

Following the celebrations of the Millennium and our entry into the 21st century, it was to be hoped that the days when a brutal dictator could bring mindless death and destruction to another country, and even to his own people, were over, and that the lessons of the past had been well and truly learned. A forlorn hope, as it...

A new assessment of the life of one of the most famous and controversial airmen of the Second World War, this book covers Guy Gibson's sometimes troubled upbringing and the impact on him of his time at St Edward's School, Oxford. In particular, the story of his career in the RAF is relayed, including his stunning leadership achievement in creating...

An autobiographical, readable, and humorous account of ten years as an experimental and military test pilot at MOD Boscombe Down. Chris Taylor has had a highly successful career as a Royal Navy officer, helicopter pilot, test pilot, instructor, and as an internationally acclaimed civil certification test pilot. His first book, Test Pilot, concentrates on anecdotes and incidents from the most...

Bill Birch was the quiet achiever of New Zealand politics. A trusted lieutenant to Prime Ministers Muldoon, Bolger and Shipley, Birch was at the heart of the action across a turbulent quarter-century of political and social change. From 'Think Big' and the Employment Contracts Act to overhauls of immigration, health, ACC, fiscal management, industry training, electricity markets, and producer boards,...

A wildly funny and meticulously researched reexamination of the life of explorer Matthew Flinders, as Shaun Micallef charts the chaos, comedy, and contradictions behind the founding of Australia. Who was Matthew Flinders? A pioneer who gave Australia its name but chose to name nothing after himself. A dreamer obsessed with Robinson Crusoe who wound up imprisoned on an island for...

This major biography traces the dramatic life of William Tyndale, the first person to translate the Bible into English from the original Greek and Hebrew, and discusses the profound religious, literary, intellectual, and social implications of his immense achievement. Tyndale's masterful translation, which gave the laity access to God, formed the basis of all English bibles, including the King James...

‘We are only a small and young nation, but we are one and all a band of brothers and we march forward with a union of hearts and wills to a common destiny.’ — Michael Joseph Savage, Prime Minister of New Zealand, upon the outbreak of WWII in 1939 Voices of World War II shows the human side of war...

The definitive biography of Aphra Behn, written by Lisa Hilton, bestselling author, historian, presenter and historical consultant. There are few labels not attached to Aphra Behn—playwright, poet, a spy, a starlet woman condemned for loose morals. And yet, for all her notoriety, Aphra Behn is an enigma. Born around 1640, her early life isn't well recorded and facts about her...

In the early eighteenth century, Christianity began to lose its hold on the story of humankind. Yet centuries of xenophobia, religious intolerance, and emerging biological ideas did not simply disappear. Instead, secular thinkers reshaped them as they looked to redefine what it meant to be human. By century's end, naturalists and philosophers had divided humankind into racial categories using methods...

Their Faraway Home gives an insight into the life of Croats in New Zealand throughout history, providing a systematic presentation of publications, cultural societies, and communication on social networking sites. The life of the early Croatian settlers was not easy – working all days in the gumfields with no knowledge of the English language, and no money to return to...

The compelling story of the only German-Jewish translator to work with the psychiatrists in Nuremberg prison. Nuremberg: The Translator's Tale unveils the Nuremberg Trials, which exposed the atrocities of the Nazi regime to the world. As they awaited trial, the twenty-two surviving leaders of Hitler's government were visited by American psychiatrists Drs Kelley and Goldensohn. Their only method of communication...

A fashion icon in her own time, the dress and interiors adopted by Marie Antoinette in the final decades of the 18th century have had a lasting influence over 250 years of design, fashion, film, and the decorative arts. Through a wide range of objects, from her own surviving possessions to 21st-century couturier’s gowns such as those of John Galliano...

From the fall of Java to the hell of the Burma–Thai Railway, one battalion’s courage becomes a nation’s story. February 1942. The troopship HMT Orcades lies in port at Java, heavy with Australian soldiers whose fate hangs in the balance. Among them are brothers Cal and Alan, unaware that their journey will take them into the darkest reaches of human...

You think you’ve married a journalist, then, horrors, he becomes a politician. Sarah Vine is the Bridget Jones of politics. – Plum Sykes Everyone in Westminster is talking about it. – The London Standard I take it all back; she's fabulous. Nobody in Westminster can afford not to buy this book. – Rachel Johnson How Not to Be a Political...

We are still coming to terms with the controversial figure of Hannah Arendt. Interlacing her life and work, this book is an elegant, sophisticated biography brimming with historical and philosophical insight. Focusing on the theme of female genius, Julia Kristeva emphasizes three features of the philosopher's work. First, by exploring Arendt's critique of Saint Augustine and her biographical essay on...

An unforgettable collection of recipes inspired by ten diverse, moving stories of Holocaust survivors and WWII heroes, from James Beard Award–winning chef Alon Shaya with author June Hersh. Memories of a Good Meal is a culinary journey that celebrates the tenacity of the human spirit and the transformative power of a good meal. Twin Jewish girls, hidden by a Christian...

The inspiring story of Mary Penfold, the mother of the Australian wine industry - a self-taught vintner and business genius who emigrated to a frontier settlement and built her family's small vineyard into one of the world's most respected winemakers. Bestselling author and biographer Grantlee Kieza turns his focus to the birth of the Australian wine industry and the mother,...

I've had more than my share of close calls. Truth is, it's f*cking thrilling. But the fear can hit just as hard, especially when you see mates wounded or killed. Or civilians caught in the crossfire - people who had nothing to do with the fight, but still paid the price. This is the story of Andy White and his...

An inspiring biography of the remarkable naturalist, explorer and revolutionary, by the bestselling author of The Invention of Nature. George Forster was a man out of time—he journeyed to the far reaches of the known world and challenged the worldviews of eighteenth-century Europe with radical ideas about equality and freedom. Celebrated during his lifetime, he knew Goethe, Benjamin Franklin, Mary...

The remarkable true story of the trailblazing men and women of Britain's blood transfusion service in World War Two. The Lifesavers were a little-known band of men and women at the forefront of groundbreaking battlefield care in the Second World War. As part of a new and pioneering service, unconventional and iconoclastic, they pushed and pulled blood from hundreds of...

A tale of restoration and homecoming—Wainwright Prize-winner James Aldred shares his deep passion for the New Forest after acquiring a plot of land and a disused Gypsy vardo begging to be restored in this ancient landscape he's been enchanted by since childhood. Imagine your dreams coming true—you acquire a Gypsy wagon you've cherished from childhood and a plot of land...

Instant New York Times Bestseller! Why did one of the world’s most successful business titans, an oil magnate who rivalled the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds, disappear from history? The author of the acclaimed bestseller The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel has the enthralling answer. With the exception of the tsar, Emanuel Nobel was likely the wealthiest man in early 20th-century...

Readers get a front-row seat to witness history, both before and after the enactment of the New Mexico Equal Rights Amendment, as told by the former executive director of the New Mexico Commission on the Status of Women. Part memoir, part history, The Changemakers is the story of the extraordinary changes that took place in New Mexico prior to and...

An explosive inside account of how the Democratic establishment used every weapon in its arsenal to subvert the will of the people and stop Bernie Sanders’s presidential bid in 2016—told by his chief strategist who witnessed it all firsthand. One question haunted the American left after the 2016 election: how could a grassroots movement that drew massive crowds and shattered...

Colonel JEN Bull was one of the most influential people on the Victorian goldfields in the 19th century. He was a real man of the times – Imperial soldier, social reformer, engineer, magistrate, goldfields administrator and civic leader. As a goldfields leader in 1853, he was faced with a rebellion by disgruntled miners. By treating the miners with respect, he...

“Exceptional . . . Deeply researched and elegantly written . . . As a description of the politics and pressures under which modern independent central banking has to operate, the book is incomparable.” —Financial Times The definitive biography of the most important economic statesman of our time, from the bestselling author of The Power Law and More Money Than God....

'An extraordinary and utterly absorbing blend of the historical, the scientific and the human. MacGregor has made us see a terrible event with different eyes. A real achievement' — Patrick Bishop We Have Ways Podcast 'Books of the Year' Selection The Critic Military Books of the Year At 8:15 a.m. on August 6th, 1945, the Japanese port city of Hiroshima...

From the internationally renowned activist, organiser, and founder of Malikah, a visionary manifesto for a world in which women are truly free, and a practical guide to keeping our bodies and communities safe—by healing from trauma, defending ourselves physically and economically, and reimagining the systems that commit and enable the culture of violence too long accepted as the status quo....

From bestselling author and royal commentator Ingrid Seward, an inside look at the lives and loves of Diana and Catherine, the Princesses of Wales A title in use for over 700 years, the Princess of Wales is one of the most senior positions in the British royal family. In a new book, bestselling author and royal commentator Ingrid Seward dives...