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Recent highlights
Helen Parr (Author)
Our Boys brings to life the human experiences of the paratroopers who fought in the Falklands, and examines the long aftermath of that conflict. It is a first in many ways - a social and cultural history of a Regiment with an elite and aggressive reputation; a study of close quarters combat on the Falkland islands; and an exploration of the many legacies of this short and symbolic war. Told through the experiences of people who lived through it, Our Boys shows how the Falklands conflict began to change Britain's relationship with its soldiers; and how this war was therefore part of the transformation of Britain in 1982 and after. It is also the story of one particular soldier: the author's uncle, who was killed during the conflict, and whose fate has haunted both the author and his fellow paratroopers ever since.
Neil MacGregor (Author)
Following the award-winning BBC Radio 4 series, a panoramic exploration of peoples, objects and beliefs from the celebrated author of A History of the World in 100 Objects and Germany
'Riveting, extraordinary ... tells the sweeping story of religious belief in all its inventive variety. The emphasis is not on our differences, but on shared spiritual yearnings' Rachel Campbell-Johnston, The Times, Books of the Year
One of the central facts of human existence is that every society shares a set of beliefs and assumptions - a faith, an ideology, a religion - that goes far beyond the life of the individual. These beliefs are an essential part of a shared identity. They have a unique power to define - and to divide - us, and are a driving force in the politics of much of the world today. Throughout history they have most often been, in the widest sense, religious.
Yet this book is not a history of religion, nor an argument in favour of faith. It is about the stories which give shape to our lives, and the different ways in which societies imagine their place in the world. Looking across history and around the globe, it interrogates objects, places and human activities to try to understand what shared beliefs can mean in the public life of a community or a nation, how they shape the relationship between the individual and the state, and how they help give us our sense of who we are.
For in deciding how we live with our gods, we also decide how to live with each other.
'The new blockbuster by the museums maestro Neil MacGregor ... The man who chronicles world history through objects is back ... examining a new set of objects to explore the theme of faith in society' Sunday Times
Ian Kershaw (Author)
After the overwhelming horrors of the first half of the 20th century, described by Ian Kershaw in his previous book as having gone 'to Hell and back', the years from 1950 to 2017 brought peace and relative prosperity to most of Europe. Enormous economic improvements transformed the continent. The catastrophic era of the world wars receded into an ever more distant past, though its long shadow continued to shape mentalities.
Europe was now a divided continent, living under the nuclear threat in a period intermittently fraught with anxiety. Europeans experienced a 'roller-coaster ride', both in the sense that they were flung through a series of events which threatened disaster, but also in that they were no longer in charge of their own destinies: for much of the period the USA and USSR effectively reduced Europeans to helpless figures whose fates were dictated to them depending on the vagaries of the Cold War. There were, by most definitions, striking successes - the Soviet bloc melted away, dictatorships vanished and Germany was successfully reunited. But accelerating globalization brought new fragilities. The impact of interlocking crises after 2008 was the clearest warning to Europeans that there was no guarantee of peace and stability.
In this remarkable book, Ian Kershaw has created a grand panorama of the world we live in and where it came from. Drawing on examples from all across Europe, Roller-Coaster will make us all rethink Europe and what it means to be European.
Jonathan Haidt (Author)
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Greg Lukianoff (Author)
The New York Times bestseller
Financial Times, TLS, Evening Standard, New Statesman Books of the Year
'Excellent, their advice is sound . . . liberal parents, in particular, should read it' Financial Times
Have good intentions, over-parenting and the decline in unsupervised play led to the emergence of modern identity politics and hypersensitivity?
In this book, free speech campaigner Greg Lukianoff and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt investigate a new cultural phenomenon of "safetyism", beginning on American college campuses in 2014 and spreading throughout academic institutions in the English-speaking world.
Looking at the consequences of paranoid parenting, the increase in anxiety and depression amongst students and the rise of new ideas about justice, Lukianoff and Haidt argue that well-intended but misguided attempts to protect young people are damaging their development and mental health, the functioning of educational systems and even democracy itself.
