Gifts For History Buffs

Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) is the great lost scientist: more things are named after him than anyone else. There are towns, rivers, mountain ranges, the ocean current that runs along the South American coast, there's a penguin, a giant squid - even the Mare Humboldtianum on the moon.

For centuries, fame and fortune were to be found in the west- in the New World of the Americas. Today, it is the east which calls out to those in search of riches and adventure. Sweeping right across Central Asia and deep into China and India, a region that once took centre stage is again rising to dominate global politics, commerce and culture. A major reassessment of world history, The Silk Roads is...

London suffered a great deal of bomb damage between 1939-1945, the impact of which is still evident in its urban and social landscapes. As a key record of the attack, the London County Council Bomb Damage Maps represent destruction on a huge scale, recording buildings and streets reduced to smoke and rubble. The full set of maps is made up of 110 hand-coloured 1:2500. Ordnance Survey base sheets ori...

Planet Earth is 4.5 billion years old. In just a fraction of that time, one species among countless others has conquered it. Us. We are the most advanced and most destructive animals ever to have lived.

'Sicily is the key to everything' Johann Wolfgang von Goethe The author of the classic book on Venice turns his sights to Sicily in this beautiful book full of maps and colour photographs.

In 1916, in the middle of the First World War, two men secretly agreed to divide the Middle East between them. Sir Mark Sykes was a visionary politician; Francois Georges-Picot a diplomat with a grudge. The deal they struck, which was designed to relieve tensions that threatened to engulf the Entente Cordiale, drew a line in the sand from the Mediterranean to the Persian frontier. Territory north of that st...

Ancient Rome matters. Its history of empire, conquest, cruelty and excess is something against which we still judge ourselves. Its myths and stories - from Romulus and Remus to the Rape of Lucretia - still strike a chord with us. And its debates about citizenship, security and the rights of the individual still influence our own debates on civil liberty today.

A stunningly illustrated book revealing the greatest myths, lies and blunders on maps. "Highly recommended" Andrew Marr 'The Phantom Atlas' is an atlas of the world not as it ever existed, but as it was thought to be. These marvellous and mysterious phantoms - non-existent islands, invented mountain ranges, mythical civilisations and other fictitious geography - were all at various times presented as...

In World Order, Henry Kissinger - one of the leading practitioners of world diplomacy and author of On China - makes his monumental investigation into the 'tectonic plates' of global history and state relations.

Shortlisted for a 2016 Edward Standford Travel Writing Award. Despite dramatic advances in technology and equipment over the centuries, there is one vital piece of kit in most explorers' pockets that hasn't changed much at all - the journal. The sketchbooks and journals presented here allow us the opportunity to share, through their own eyes and thoughts, the on-the-spot reactions of around 70 intrepid i...

Stanfords Adult Book of the Month July 2016 From the origins of urbanization in Mesopotamia to the global metropolises of today, great cities have marked the development of human civilization. The Great Cities in History tells their stories, from Uruk and Memphis to Tokyo and Sao Paulo. A galaxy of distinguished contributors evoke the character of each place - its people, its art and...

Stanfords Adult Book of the Month October 2016 Britain's railways have been a vital part of national life for nearly 200 years. Transforming lives and landscapes, they have left their mark on everything from timekeeping to tourism. As a self-contained world governed by distinctive rules and traditions, the network also exerts a fascination all its own. From the classical grandeur of Ne...

Throughout history, maps have been fundamental in shaping our view of the world, and our place in it. But far from being purely scientific objects, maps of the world are unavoidably ideological and subjective, intimately bound up with the systems of power and authority of particular times and places. Mapmakers do not simply represent the world, they construct it out of the ideas of their age.

London - A History in Maps published by the British Library in association with the London Topographical Society beautifully illustrates the development of London over the past 750 years from a small town, snuggly fitted within its walls, into one of the world’s greatest and most dynamic capitals.

Winner of the Destinations Show Illustrated Travel Book of the Year 2016. Critically acclaimed author Malachy Tallack returns in the autumn of 2016 with The Un-Discovered Islands, an exploration of some of the world's strangest places. Gathered in the book are two dozen islands once believed to be real but no longer on the map. These are the products of imagination, deception and simp...

These are the stories of fifty countries that once existed but have now have been erased from the map. Varying vastly in size and shape, location and longevity, they are united by one fact: all of them endured long enough to issue their own stamps.

Tiny Histories is a fond, fun and informative look at the seemingly insignificant coincidences, decisions and tiny moments that triggered major events and changed the course of British history.