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Fascinated by the latest titles on historical accounts of war, politics, religion and societies? Find an interesting title in book, eBook, eAudiobook or large print. This list updates when we add new titles to our collection.
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Book
"The extraordinary story of the women who took on the Islamic State and won. In 2014, northeastern Syria might have been the last place you would expect to find a revolution centered on women's rights. And yet that year, an all-female militia faced off...
"The Soviet Union was built on 20th-century magic called 'the planned economy', which was going to gush forth an abundance of good things that capitalism could never match. And just for a little while, in the late 1950s, the magic seemed to be working....
"Politics has given us some shocking and confounding moments but none have come close to the careening final days of Donald Trump's presidency: the surreal stage management of his re-election campaign, his audacious election challenge, the harrowing mayhem...
eBook
"Kurt Schindler was an impossible man. His daughter Meriel spent her adult life trying to keep him at bay. Kurt had made extravagant claims about their family history. Were they really related to Franz Kafka and Oscar Schindler, of Schindler's List fame?...
Northumbria was one of the great kingdoms of Britain in the Dark Ages, enduring longer than the Roman Empire. Yet is has been all but fogotten. This book puts Northumbria back in its rightful place, at the heart of British history. From the impregnab...
Large Print
"By the time he was six, Stephen had been bombarded by the Luftwaffe and deported from occupied Guernsey, along with his family, to a prison camp in the heart of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. He had seen men die in front of him, walked with Jews straight...
"In this ... memoir, Hon. Sir Michael Cullen describes his lengthy political career, including his major economic policies. Among the many highlights are the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, also known as the Cullen Fund; KiwiSaver; and the Working f...
"The Hundred Year War is the story of the intense competition between the All Blacks and Springboks over the past 100 years, the games they've played and the battles that have raged from parliaments to the streets. It's an examination of two cultures...
"Brian Butlers grandmother was taken from her family in 1910. She was 12 years old. Twenty years later her daughter, Brians mother, was taken.Thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, like Brian Butlers, have been coping with the trauma...
eAudiobook
"History is not, and has never been, inert, certain, merely factual, and beyond reinterpretation. Taking readers from Thucydides to the origin of the French Revolution to the Civil War and beyond, James M. Banner, Jr.. explores what historians do and...
"In New Zealand's France, Dr Alistair Watts investigates the origins of the New Zealand nation state from a fresh perspective - one that moves beyond the traditional bicultural view prevalent in the current New Zealand historiography. That New Zealand...
"The longest river in Europe, the Volga stretches over three and a half thousand km from the heart of Russia to the Caspian Sea, separating west from east. The river has played a crucial role in the history of the peoples who are now a part of the Ru...
"The astonishing true story of three fearless female resisters during WWII whose youth and innocence belied their extraordinary daring in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands. It also made them the underground's most invaluable commodity. Recruited as teena...
The extraordinary story of the Nazi-era scientific genius who discovered how cancer cells eat--and what it means for how we should. The Nobel laureate Otto Warburg--a cousin of the famous finance Warburgs--was widely regarded in his day as one of the...
""The gripping tale of the campaign that determined the outcome of the Second World War. Barbarossa, Hitler's invasion of Russia in June 1941, was the largest military operation in history, its aim nothing less than 'a war of extermination' to annihi...
"Paris has long been the world's most popular destination and, in the view of many, the world's most beautiful city - the product of two thousand years of continuous improvement and refinement. The Making of Paris is the story of how Paris evolved from...
"How vast then is forgetting - of language, of places, of the dead? Are these even things that can be measured? They are not - but they can be described. Amnesia Road is a powerful literary consideration of historic violence in two different parts of...
Long dismissed as a technology of the distant future, artificial intelligence was a project once consigned to the fringes of the scientific community. Then two researchers changed everything. One was a 64-year-old computer science professor with a back...
Australia and its formation - through the distorted view of a rum bottle. Could the Rum Rebellion have been averted if Major Johnston wasn't hungover? Would the Eureka Stockade have been different if the rebels weren't pissed? How were prisoners to get...
Brought to you by Penguin. 'This remarkable book shines the brightest of lights into some of the darkest and most misunderstood corners of our shared history' James O'Brien In his brilliantly illuminating new book Sathnam Sanghera demonstrates how so...
Detailing the development of the prison and its outlying stations, including its dreaded coal mines and providing an account of the changing views to convict rehabilitation, Convict-era Port Arthur focuses in on a number of individuals, telling the s...
"A concise, accessible account of strategy and the Second World War. How the war was won and lost. In 1941, the Second World War became global, when Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union; Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor; and Germany...
"The Nine follows the true story of the author's great aunt Helene Podliasky, who led a band of nine female resistance fighters as they escaped a German forced labor camp and made a ten-day journey across the front lines of WWII from Germany back to Paris....
"Elected in 1960 as the 35th President of the USA, John Fitzgerald Kennedy remains to this day the office's youngest incumbent and he was its first Roman Catholic. His term in office was short, but arguably no US President has inspired more people around...
""On the stormy night of August 29, 1776, the Continental Army faced annihilation. After losing the Battle of Brooklyn, the British had Washington's army trapped against the East River. The fate of the Revolution rested heavily on the shoulders of th...
"In Myanmar, where civil war, repressive government, and the $40 billion a year jade industry have shaped life for decades, everyone is fighting for their own version of the truth. Until the World Shatters, takes us deep into a world in which journalists...
Hankering for a mostly true tale about the hard-living desperadoes who inhabited America's desert Southwest in the mid-1800s? This biography of the ill-fated gunslinger Billy, the Kid was written by Pat Garrett, the sheriff who shot Billy down.
The fascinating, definitive story of Australia and New Zealand's quest to win the world's greatest motor race.
"The story of the All Blacks campaign for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, with insightful analysis and full commentary. What happened to the All Blacks at the 2019 Rugby World Cup? They were aiming for their third title in a row. A win would have capped a decade...
"This brilliant selection of photographs and stories describes what it means to stare down the most famous ritual in sport, from the perspective of those who have been there. Facing the Haka examines the significance that the All Blacks' haka has in the...
"A journalist who specializes in conspiracy theories draws on interviews with QAnon converts and victims, as well as psychologists, sociologists, and academics to explain the origin and growth of the movement, its embrace by right-wing media and poli...
"The true and moving holocaust story of Jewish schoolgirl Alie Lopes Dias and the fate of her schoolfriends in Amsterdam. Only six of the 19 survived the war. Through the discovery of a precious friendship album which belonged to 12-year-old Alie, a ...
"The Gunpowder Plot, the Civil Wars, Charles I's execution, the Plague, the Great Fire, the Restoration, and then the Glorious Revolution: the seventeenth century was one of the most momentous times in the history of Britain, and Londoners took center...
"A rollercoaster ride through the world after the Apocalypse with a simple message: either we change course or we face mass extinction"--Publisher's description.
Manawa Hine: He wāhine e tohe ki te tai - Women who swam against the tideText by Kuini RikihanaIllustrations by Sarah WairauTranslated by Hēni JacobFrom Kuini Rikihana, author of Illustrated Māori Myths and Legends, comes Manawa Hine, a collection of...
"The incredible story of how a woman and her family survived poverty and injustices, and yet received miraculous provision. How did a woman who suffered such trauma go on to change the face of the justice system in New Zealand and the world? Verna's and...
Learn the Invaluable Lessons from The Vanishing Half: A Novel by Brit Bennett and Apply it into Your Life Without Missing Out! What's it worth to you to have just ONE good idea applied to your life?In many cases, it may mean expanded paychecks, bette...
"The true history of organized crime"--
A revealing history of Islamic architecture's influence on Europe's cathedrals, palaces and public buildings.
Chronicles the revolutionary activities of Harriet Tubman, Frances Seward, and Martha Wright--friends and neighbors in Auburn, New York--discussing their vital roles in the Underground Railroad, abolition, and the early women's rights movement.
"Emily Dickinson was a keen observer of the natural world, but less well known is the fact that she was also an avid gardener--sending fresh bouquets to friends, including pressed flowers in her letters, and studying botany at Amherst Academy and Mou...
In the most ambitious one-volume American history in decades, award-winning historian Jill Lepore offers a magisterial account of the origins and rise of a divided nation. The American experiment rests on three ideas--"these truths," Jefferson called...
"Exploring intergenerational trauma in Indigenous communities--and strategies for healing--with provocative prose and an empathetic approach Indigenous peoples have shockingly higher rates of addiction, depression, diabetes, and other chronic health ...
"Germany, 1945- a country in ruins. Cities have been reduced to rubble and more than half of the population are where they do not belong or do not want to be. How can a functioning society ever emerge from this chaos? In bombed-out Berlin, Ruth...
"In 1897, the United States was mired in the worst economic depression that the country had yet endured. So when all the newspapers announced gold was to be found in wildly enriching quantities at the Klondike River region of the Yukon, a mob of econ...
What happened to the globally-beloved kangaroo, koala and other Australian indigenous animals under the beliefs and traditions of colonialism? How did their fate during 200 years of nation building become a fugitive drama of dispossession and disrespect...
"Follow Sherry Buchanan on a journey by an author who has long had a passion for Vietnamese art and for the sketches produced under the duress of the Vietnam or American War (1965-1975). Though she was familiar with and had traveled in Vietnam, she had...
"Provides a tour of the history of Iceland, from the time a Viking captain ran aground there 1,200 years ago to the pivotal role it played during the French Revolution, the moon landing, and the foundation of Israel"--Publisher's description.
"To Julie Metz, her mother, Eve, was the quintessential New Yorker. It was difficult to imagine her living anywhere else except the Upper West Side of Manhattan. In truth, Eve had endured a harrowing childhood in Nazi-occupied Vienna, though she rarely...
"Between the birth of Dante in 1265 and the death of Galileo in 1642 something happened which transformed the entire culture of western civilisation. Painting' sculpture and architecture would all visibly change in such a striking fashion that there could...
"An ambitious, valuable history of a major European power. Following the defeat of the Third Reich in 1945, Germany has experienced recurring turmoil and reinvention. In this ambitious book, Michael Gehler explores the political path Germany has taken...
"Spain's top city for tourism, Madrid attracts more than six million visitors a year. Helen Crisp and Jules Stewart relate the story of a city and its people through the centuries, while their carefully curated listings give a nod to well-known attractions...
Biblical womanhood-the belief that God designed women to be submissive wives, virtuous mothers, and joyful homemakers-pervades North American Christianity. From choices about careers to roles in local churches to relationship dynamics, this belief shapes...
From the intimate perspective of three friends and neighbors in mid-nineteenth century Auburn, New York--the "agitators" of the title--acclaimed author Dorothy Wickenden tells the fascinating and crucially American stories of abolition, the undergrou...
Prisoners of Geography meets Bill Bryson: a funny, fascinating, beautifully illustrated - and timely - history of countries that, for myriad and often ludicrous reasons, no longer exist. 'Countries are just daft stories we tell each other. They're all...
'Astonishing and compelling' Bernard Cornwell 'Replete with witches, human sacrifice, Greek fire and funeral orgies... one of the most thrilling works of archaeological detective work I have ever read' William Dalrymple, FT Follow bioarchaeologist Cat...
In this ground-breaking book, Dr. Michaeleen Doucleff looks back to our ancestors for solutions to our failing modern-day parenting theories. When Dr. Michaeleen Doucleff became a mother, she examined the studies behind modern parenting guidance and found...
"Legio IX Hispana had a long and active history, later founding York from where it guarded the northern frontiers in Britain. But the last evidence for its existence in Britain comes from AD 108. The mystery of their disappearance has inspired debate...
"Berlin's fate was sealed at the 1945 Yalta Conference: the city, along with the rest of Germany, was to be carved up among the victorious powers - the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. On paper, it seemed a pragmatic solution. In...
"Athens: Democracy, Oligarchy, and Ruins in Classical Greece -- Rome: Ruins and Empire in the Late Antique World -- Baghdad: Postclassical Ruins and the Islamic Cityscape -- Tenochtitlan: Preservationism and Its Failures in Early Modern Mexico"--Publ...
"On April 24th 1915 Armenian intellectuals of the Ottoman Empire were arrested en masse marking the beginning of the Armenian Genocide. The following day, April 25th 1915, saw the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landing at Gallipoli. This book draws...
"World War II remains the largest conflict humanity has ever seen, both in terms of scale and loss of life. The war involved virtually every part of the world during the years 1939-1945. But from Norway to Mandalay, from Stalingrad to Tobruk, from Manchuria...
"June 1942. The shadow of the Third Reich has fallen across the entire European continent. In desperation, Winston Churchill and his chief of staff form an unusual plan: a new commando unit made up of Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria who escaped...
"In 1945, Eddy Sackville-West, Desmond Shawe-Taylor and Eardley Knollys - writers for the New Statesman and a National Trust administrator - purchased Long Crichel House, an old rectory with no electricity and an inadequate water supply. In this impr...
""From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Boys in the Boat, a gripping World War II saga of patriotism and courage: the special Japanese-American Army unit that overcame brutal odds in Europe; their families, incarcerated in camps back home;...
"Clandestine radio operators had one of the most dangerous jobs of World War 2\. Those in Nazi-occupied Europe for the SOE, MI6 and the OSS had a life-expectancy of just six weeks. In the Gilbert Islands the Japanese decapitated 17 New Zealand 'Coast...
"When the Viking Great Army swept through England between 865 and 878 CE, the course of English history was forever changed. The people of the British Isles had become accustomed to raids for silver and prisoners, but 865 CE saw a fundamental shift as...
"Detailing the development of the prison and its outlying stations, including its dreaded coal mines and providing an account of the changing views to convict rehabilitation, Convict-era Port Arthur focuses in on a number of individuals, telling the ...
"A panoramic history of the savage combat on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918 that came to define modern warfare. The Western Front evokes images of hardship and sacrifice, of young, mud-spattered men in water-logged trenches, shielded from ar...
"Nearly 13,000 years ago millions of people and animals were wiped out, and the world plunged abruptly into a new ice-age. It was more than a thousand years before the climate, and mankind, recovered. The people of Gobekli Tepe in present-day southern...
"A lively, immersive history by an award-winning urbanist of New York City's transformation, and the lessons it offers for the city's future. Dangerous, filthy, and falling apart, garbage piled on its streets and entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble;...
"The story of the First World War in Africa, an almost forgotten conflict that devastated an area five times the size of Germany and killed more than two million people. The story of the First World War in Africa, an almost forgotten conflict that de...
"On the tenth anniversary of his rise to power in 1932, Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) seemed to many the "good dictator." He was the first totalitarian and the first fascist in modern Europe. But a year later Hitler's entrance onto the political stage...
"Artists, martyrs, kings, revolutionaries: France's dramatic history fascinates the world and attracts millions each year to visit its chateaux and cathedrals, boulevards and vineyards. Jeremy Black succinctly narrates how France's past has created i...
"This is the age of Jane Austen and the Romantic poets; the paintings of John Constable and the gardens of Humphry Repton; the sartorial elegance of Beau Brummell and the poetic licence of Lord Byron; Britain's military triumphs at Trafalgar and Waterloo;...
"The definitive visual history looks at this epic war from every angle, tracing the course of military, strategic, and political events across the globe, and documenting the experiences of combatants and civilians"--Publisher's description.
"A magnificent tribute to the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II, and a celebration of the British royal family. This book is a stunning visual guide to the world's most famous royals, from the Queen's Norman predecessors to her great-grandchildren....
"Jack Turner's POW diary and letters provide an absorbing account of his four years in Stalag VIIIB. The clarity of Jack's writing, his love of flora and fauna, his light-hearted poetry, an ongoing interest in the produce business and his ingenuity in...
"This eye-opening book reveals how China has used the US-led Global War on Terror as cover for its increasingly brutal suppression of the Uyghur people. China’s actions, it argues, have emboldened states around the globe to persecute ethnic minorities...
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