Holodomor - Silenced Voices of the Starved Children by Lesa Morgan (Editor); Philip Webster (Editor)

$45.00 AUD

Category: European

History of the Ukrainian Genocide of 1932-33, a man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine.Personal stories of the Ukrainian genocide survivors.

Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan

$22.99 AUD

Category: Cultural, Ideas, Political & Issues | Reading Level: good

The sun is setting on the Western world. Slowly but surely, the direction in which the world spins has reversed- where for the last five centuries the globe turned westwards on its axis, it now turns to the east. For centuries, fame and fortune were to be found in the west - in the New World of the Amer icas. 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 a dazzling exploration of the forces that have driven the rise and fall of empires, determined the flow of ideas and goods and are now heralding a new dawn in international affairs. ...Show more

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard

$24.99 AUD

Category: European | Reading Level: near fine

New York Times Bestseller - National Book Critics Circle Finalist - Wall Street Journal Best Books of 2015 - Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2015 - Economist Books of the Year 2015 - New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books of 2015 A sweeping, "magisterial" history of the Roman Empire from one of our f oremost classicists shows why Rome remains "relevant to people many centuries later" (Atlantic). In SPQR, an instant classic, Mary Beard narrates the history of Rome "with passion and without technical jargon" and demonstrates how "a slightly shabby Iron Age village" rose to become the "undisputed hegemon of the Mediterranean" (Wall Street Journal). Hailed by critics as animating "the grand sweep and the intimate details that bring the distant past vividly to life" (Economist) in a way that makes "your hair stand on end" (Christian Science Monitor) and spanning nearly a thousand years of history, this "highly informative, highly readable" (Dallas Morning News) work examines not just how we think of ancient Rome but challenges the comfortable historical perspectives that have existed for centuries. With its nuanced attention to class, democratic struggles, and the lives of entire groups of people omitted from the historical narrative for centuries, SPQR will to shape our view of Roman history for decades to come. ...Show more

Paris: A Guide to the City's Creative Heart by Janelle McCulloch (Photographer)

$49.99 AUD

Category: European

It's hard not to be smitten by Paris. The city of love and light is one of the most enchanting in the world, but it also has a tendency to keep its best spots well hidden. After spending the last 20 years exploring the city, journalist and photographer Janelle McCulloch has discovered all of Paris' secr et gems and shares them in this beautiful guide. From the stylish boutiques on Champs-Elysees to the irresistible cafes, tea salons and patisseries that make up the fabric of the city, you will find everything you need to know to have a true insider's experience of Paris.Paris begins with an atmospheric guide to the arrondissements, each with their distinct personality, like the sophisticate 1st with its magnificent architecture and perfectly clipped trees, or the hipster 3rd with its avant garde artisans and cool cafes. Janelle leads you on a wander through each area, taking in architectural and design features and discovering secret side streets, tucked-away gardens and beautiful neighbourhood squares.In the second half of the book Janelle shares her very favourite places to visit in Paris, with over 150 reviews of the most incredible and unusual shops, museums, markets, cafes and food stores. There's Laduree, the city's prettiest patisserie, or the stylish Calligrane, a store that elevates paper into a work of art, along with a whole raft of amazing ateliers, inspiring bookstores, secret design museums, stylish clothing boutiques and even fantastical shops filled with taxidermied animals. ...Show more

Stasiland by Anna Funder

$22.99 AUD

Category: European

Winner of the BBC Four Samuel Johnson Prize Truth can be stranger - and more heartbreaking and hilarious - than fiction. In this now classic work, Funder tells extraordinary stories from the most perfected surveillance state of all time, the former East Germany. She meets Miriam, condemned as an enemy of the state at sixteen, and Frau Paul, for whom the Berlin Wall 'went through my heart'. She drinks with the legendary 'Mik Jegger' of the East, once declared by the authorities to 'no longer exist'. And she meets ex-Stasi - men who spied on their families and friends - still loyal to the deposed regime as they await the next revolution. Stasiland is a brilliant, timeless portrait of a Kafkaesque world as gripping as any thriller. In a world of total surveillance, its celebration of human conscience and courage is as potent as ever. ...Show more

Northmen's Fury: A History of the Viking World by Philip Parker

$24.99 AUD

Category: European

"The Northmen s Fury tells the Viking story, from the first pinprick raids of the eighth century to the great armies that left their Scandinavian homelands to conquer larger parts of France, Britain and Ireland. It recounts the epic voyages that took them across the Atlantic to the icy fjords of Greenla nd and to North America over four centuries before Columbus and east to the great rivers of Russia and the riches of the Byzantine empire. One summer s day in 793, death arrived from the sea. The raiders who sacked the island monastery of Lindisfarne were the first Vikings, sea-borne attackers who brought two centuries of terror to northern Europe. Before long the sight of their dragon-prowed longships and the very name of Viking gave rise to fear and dread, so much so that monks were reputed to pray each night for delivery from the Northmen s Fury . Yet for all their reputation as bloodthirsty warriors, the Vikings possessed a sophisticated culture that produced art of great beauty, literature of abiding power and kingdoms of surprising endurance. The Northmen s Furydescribes how and why a region at the edge of Europe came to dominate and to terrorise much of the ...Show more

The Romanovs: 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore

$24.99 AUD

Category: European | Reading Level: good

"Epic history on the grandest scale. . . . Game of Thrones seems like the proverbial vicar's tea party in comparison."--Financial Times   The Romanovs were the most successful dynasty of modern times, ruling a sixth of the world's surface for three centuries. How did one family turn a war-ruined princip ality into the world's greatest empire? And how did they lose it all?   This is the intimate story of twenty tsars and tsarinas, some touched by genius, some by madness, but all inspired by holy autocracy and imperial ambition. Simon Sebag Montefiore's gripping chronicle reveals their secret world of unlimited power and ruthless empire-building, overshadowed by palace conspiracy, family rivalries, sexual decadence, and wild extravagance.   Drawing on new archival research, Montefiore delivers an enthralling epic of triumph and tragedy, love and murder, that is both a universal study of power and a portrait of empire that helps define Russia today. ...Show more

The Thirty-Year Genocide - Turkey's Destruction of Its Christian Minorities, 1894-1924 by Benny Morris; Dror Zeevi

$84.99 AUD

Category: European

From 1894 to 1924 three waves of violence swept across Anatolia, targeting the region's Christian minorities. Benny Morris and Dror Ze'evi's impeccably researched account is the first to show that the three were actually part of a single, continuing, and intentional effort to wipe out Anatolia's Christi an population and create a pure Muslim nation. ...Show more

Outwitting History by Aaron Lansky

$32.99 AUD

Category: European

Luck and the Irish : A brief history of change 1970-2000 by R.F. Foster

$19.99 AUD

Category: European

From 1970, things were changing in Ireland - the Celtic Tiger had finally woken, and the rules for everything from gender roles and religion to international relations were being entirely rewritten. "Luck and the Irish" examines how the country has weathered these last thirty years of change, and what t hese changes may mean in the long run. R. F. Foster also looks at how characters as diverse as Gerry Adams, Mary Robinson, Charles Haughey and Bob Geldof have contributed to Ireland's altered psyche, and uncovers some of the scandals, corruption and marketing masterminds that have transformed Ireland - and its luck. ...Show more

The Crime and the Silence by Anna Bikont

$35.00 AUD

Category: European

On 10 July 1941 a horrifying crime was committed in the small Polish town of Jedwadbne. Early in the afternoon, the town's Jewish population - hundreds of men, women and children - were ordered out of their homes, and marched into the town square. By the end of the day most would be dead. It was a massa cre on a shocking scale, and one that was widely condemned. But only a few people were brought to justice for their part in the atrocity. The truth of what actually happened on that day was to be suppressed for more than sixty years. Part history, part memoir, part investigation, The Crime and the Silence is an award-winning journalist's account of the events of that day: both the story of a massacre told through oral histories of survivors and witnesses, and a portrait of a Polish town coming to terms with its dark past. Including the perspectives of both heroes and perpetrators, Anna Bikont chronicles the sources of the hatred that exploded against Jews and asks what myths grow on hidden memories, what destruction they cause, and what happens to a society that refuses to accept a horrific truth. Provocative, profoundly moving and ingeniously structured, The Crime and the Silence is a monumental work of non-fiction, and a vital contribution to Holocaust literature. ...Show more

Spain: The Centre of the World 1519-1682 by Robert Goodwin

$50.00 AUD

Category: European

In the sixteenth century, the Spaniards became the first nation in history to have worldwide reach; across most of Europe to the Americas, the Philippines, and India. Goodwin tells the story of Spain and the Spaniards, from great soldiers like the Duke of Alba to literary figures and artists such as El Greco, Velazquez, Cervantes, and Lope de Vega, and the monarchs who ruled over them. At the beginning of the modern age, Spaniards were caught between the excitement of change and a medieval world of chivalry and religious orthodoxy, they experienced a turbulent existential angst that fueled an exceptional Golden Age, a fluorescence of art, literature, poetry, and which inspired new ideas about International Law, merchant banking, and economic and social theory. ...Show more