Meik Wiking founded the world's first Happiness Research Institute in 2013, in Copenhagen, Denmark and is a New York Times and Sunday Times Bestselling author. Meik has been called The Indiana Jones of Smiles and probably the World's Happiest Man by The Times. He is the author of four globally bestselling books which have sold over 2 million copies worldwide: The Little Book of Hygge, The Little Book of Lykke, The Art of Making Memories and My Hygge Home.

Meik Wiking

Sue Meikle has always been obsessed with picture books, and after working as an Early Years Specialist for over 25 years, she has read stories to children from Stockport to South Africa. In schools, in early years centres, while on forest school adventures... Sue has even read stories on a travelling play bus! So, perhaps it was always in the stars for Sue to not just read books, but write them, too! When she's not reading or writing stories, Sue can be found walking her dog or chauffeuring her teenagers around the Greater Manchester area (because that’s where they live… in a home that they made from a derelict barn!)

Sue Meikle

David Meikle is a TV scriptwriter and Sunday Times bestselling author. He has written and co-written seven books, including the autobiographies of Charlie Richardson and Bobby Cummines.

David Meikle

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Roel Sterckx

How did the ancient Chinese think about the world? What does environmental consciousness stand for in the Chinese tradition? Where does China's obsession with education come from? 
 
We are often told that the twenty-first century is bound to become China's century. Never before has Chinese culture been so physically, digitally, economically or aesthetically present in everyday life in the Western world. But how much do we really know about its origins and key beliefs, especially compared to the many histories of Western philosophy? 
 
In this enlightening book, Roel Sterckx, one of the foremost experts in Chinese thought, takes us through centuries of Chinese history, from Confucius to Daoism to the Legalists. With evocative examples from philosophy, literature and everyday life, he shows us how the ancient Chinese have shaped the thinking of a civilization that is now influencing our own.

Chinese Thought

From Confucius to Cook Ding

Jonathan Holslag

In three thousand years of history, China has spent at least eleven centuries at war. The Roman Empire was in conflict during at least 50 per cent of its lifetime. Since 1776, the United States has spent over one hundred years at war. The dream of peace has been universal in the history of humanity. So why have we so rarely been able to achieve it? 
 
In A Political History of the World, Jonathan Holslag has produced a sweeping history of the world, from the Iron Age to the present, that investigates the causes of conflict between empires, nations and peoples and the attempts at diplomacy and cosmopolitanism. A birds-eye view of three thousand years of history, the book illuminates the forces shaping world politics from Ancient Egypt to the Han Dynasty, the Pax Romana to the rise of Islam, the Peace of Westphalia to the creation of the United Nations. 
 
This truly global approach enables Holslag to search for patterns across different eras and regions, and explore larger questions about war, diplomacy, and power. Has trade fostered peace? What are the limits of diplomacy? How does environmental change affect stability? Is war a universal sin of power? At a time when the threat of nuclear war looms again, this is a much-needed history intended for students of international politics, and anyone looking for a background on current events.

A Political History of the World

Three Thousand Years of War and Peace

Christopher Harding

In this enormously enjoyable introduction to a remarkable country, Christopher Harding traces Japan's rich history over several millennia. Beginning with its earliest coastal communities through to the spread of Buddhism, the rise of the warlords, the promise and menace of the West and Japan's own empire-building, Harding explores how a distinctly Japanese society and culture was forged. 
 
Drawing on the latest scholarship, A Short History of Japan moves beyond traditional tourist-board clichés to consider Japan's own view of its past, values and culture, from ceramics and theatre to food and architecture. The result is a sensory, tactile history conveying to the reader much about Japan’s special nature. Harding skilfully shows how these everyday details are intimately bound up with the bigger historical picture, as an expression of the values that have been extraordinarily successful in helping the country to cope with centuries of radical change.

A Short History of Japan

Vladislav Zubok

Why did the Cold War erupt so soon after the Second World War? How did it escalate so rapidly, spanning five continents over six decades? And what led to the spectacular collapse of the Soviet Union? 
 
In this comprehensive guide to the most widespread conflict in contemporary history, Vladislav Zubok traces the origins of the Cold War in post-war Europe, through the tumultuous decades of confrontation, to the fall of the Berlin Wall and beyond. 
 
With remarkable clarity, Zubok argues that the Cold War, often seen as an existential battle between capitalist democracy and totalitarian Communism, has long been misunderstood. Challenging the popular Western narrative that economic superiority and democratic values led the USA to victory, Zubok looks beyond the familiar images of East-West rivalry towards the wider context of global decolonisation, Soviet weakness and the accidents of history. Here, he interrogates what happens when stability and peace are no longer the default, when treaties are broken and when diplomacy ceases to function. 
 
Drawing on years of research and informed by Zubok’s three decades in the USSR followed by three decades in the West, The World of the Cold War paints a striking portrait of a world on the brink.

The World of the Cold War

1945-1991

Richard Jenkyns

Any list of the six greatest European poets would include Virgil, Aeschylus and Homer. A recent history of philosophy named Aristotle and Plato as two of the world's four greatest philosophers. The greatest historian of all is likely to be Thucydides. Why was Ancient Greek and Roman literature so great? 
 
Sweeping across a thousand years, acclaimed professor Richard Jenkyns provides a lucid and lively introduction to the foundation of all Western literature. As Jenkyns shows us, the Greeks were masters of invention - they pioneered nearly all the major literary forms, including epic poetry, tragedy, comedy, and history. The Romans, like us, already felt in the shadow of Greek literature, and, as Jenkyn puts it, they first invented imitation. 
 
In short, engaging chapters, Jenkyns illuminates the most enduring and influential works of the classical world, from the Homeric epics to the golden age of Latin poetry, and explores their unparalleled and continuing influence on Western literature.

Classical Literature

Nicholas Mirzoeff

Since the rise of the internet and personal computers, we have seen an exponential increase in the number of visual images around us. From YouTube to Instagram, video games to installation art, this dramatic visual transformation is liberating, confusing and worrying all at once. Nicholas Mirzoeff is a leading figure in the burgeoning field of visual culture, which aims to make sense of the images and artefacts all around us. In the first book to explain this fascinating and timely subject to the general reader, Mirzoeff draws on art history, theory and everyday experience to provide an engaging, approachable introduction to how visual materials shape our lives.

How to See the World

Hugh Kennedy

What is a caliphate? Who can be caliph? And how are contemporary ideologues such as ISIS reviving - and abusing - the term today? 
 
In the first modern account of a subject of critical importance today, acclaimed historian Hugh Kennedy answers these questions by chronicling the rich history of the caliphate, from the death of Muhammad to the present. At its height, the caliphate stretched from Spain to China and was the most powerful political entity in western Eurasia. In an era when Paris and London boasted a few thousand inhabitants, Baghdad and Cairo were sophisticated centres of trade and culture, and the Ummayad and Abbasid caliphates were distinguished by extraordinary advances in science, medicine and architecture. By ending with the recent re-emergence of caliphal ideology within fundamentalist Islam, The Caliphate underscores why it is crucial that we understand this form of Islamic government before groups such as ISIS distort its practice completely.

The Caliphate

James Curran

Joanna Redden

Our lives are more mediated than ever before. Adults in economically advanced countries spend, on average, over eight hours per day interacting with the media. The news and entertainment industries are being transformed by the shift to digital platforms. But how much is really changing in terms of what shapes media content? What are the impacts on our public and imaginative life? And is the Internet a democratising tool of social protest, or of state and commercial manipulation? 
 
Drawing on decades of research to examine these and other questions, Understanding Media interrogates claims about the Internet, explores how representations in TV and film may influence perceptions of self, and traces overarching trends while attending to crucial local context, from the United States to China, Norway to Malaysia, and Brazil to Britain. Understanding Media is an accessible and essential guide to the world's most influential force - the contemporary media.

Understanding Media

Communication, Power and Social Change

Guy Standing

We are losing the commons. Austerity and neoliberal policies have depleted our shared wealth; our national utilities have been sold off to foreign conglomerates, social housing is almost non-existent, our parks are cordoned off for private events and our national art galleries are sponsored by banks and oil companies. This plunder deprives us all of our common rights, recognized as far back as the Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forest of 1217, to share fairly and equitably in our public wealth. 
 
Guy Standing leads us through a new appraisal of the commons, stemming from the medieval concept of common land reserved in ancient law from marauding barons, to his modern reappraisal of the resources we all hold in common - a brilliant new synthesis that crystallises quite how much public wealth has been redirected to the 1% in recent decades through the state-approved exploitation of everything from our land to our state housing, health and benefit systems, to our justice system, schools, newspapers and even the air we breathe. Plunder of the Commons proposes a charter for a new form of commoning, of remembering, guarding and sharing that which belongs to us all, to slash inequality and soothe our current political instability.

Plunder of the Commons

A Manifesto for Sharing Public Wealth

Ruth Kinna

Often associated with chaos or disorder, anarchy defies definition and routinely gets a bad press. And yet from Occupy to Pussy Riot, Noam Chomsky to David Graeber, this philosophical and political movement is as relevant as ever. Contrary to popular perception, different strands of anarchism - from individualism to collectivism - do follow certain structures and a shared sense of purpose: a belief in freedom and working towards collective good without the interference of the state. 
 
In this masterful, sympathetic account, political theorist Ruth Kinna traces the tumultuous history of anarchism, starting with thinkers and activists such as Peter Kropotkin and Emma Goldman and through key events like the Paris Commune and the Haymarket affair. Skilfully introducing us to the nuanced theories of a range of anarchist groups from around the world, The Government of No One reveals what makes a supposedly chaotic movement particularly adaptable and effective over centuries.

The Government of No One

The Theory and Practice of Anarchism

Mark Sedgwick

Traditionalism is founded on ancient teachings that, its followers argue, have been handed down from time immemorial, forming a basis of the sacred order that must be defended from modernity and the disorder it brings. It has been used to encourage respect for the environment, compose great music and reduce hostility between followers of different religions. King Charles is an avowed Traditionalist, and has used it as a framework to encourage protecting the rural landscape. 
 
But Traditionalism has also been used to support darker causes: from the election of Donald Trump to fascist movements and even terrorism. How has Traditionalism been so influential for so long, yet so little acknowledged and understood? Its followers have never aimed to reach the masses and have sought to affect the world quietly. In this book, the first of its kind for a wide audience, Traditionalism's history, ideas and profound impact are laid out, shining a light onto this shadowy world and the thought of its three founders, René Guénon, Julius Evola and Frithjof Schuon. Once you understand Traditionalism, you will see its influence everywhere.

Traditionalism

The Radical Project for Restoring Sacred Order

Jo Dunkley

In recent years, extraordinary advances in our understanding of the wider Universe have led us to uncover even greater mysteries: what, for example, are the mysterious 'dark' parts of the Universe? And, what happens in those parts of space where conditions are so intense that our laws of physics break down? 
 
In this new Pelican book, practising cosmologist and Professor of Astrophysics Jo Dunkley takes us to the heart of these many unsolved questions, guiding us through the history and structure of the universe, and illuminating many unsung heroes of discovery along the way.

Our Universe

An Astronomer's Guide

Ha-Joon Chang

What is economics? 
How does the global economy work? 
What do different economic theories tell us about the world? 
 
In Economics: The User's Guide, bestselling author Ha-Joon Chang explains how the global economy works, and why anyone can understand the dismal science. Unlike many economists who claim there is only one way of 'doing economics', he introduces readers to a wide range of economic theories, from classical to Keynesian, revealing how they all have their strengths, weaknesses and blind spots. By ignoring the received wisdom, and exposing the myriad forces that shape our financial fate, Chang provides the tools that every responsible citizen needs to understand - and address - our current economic woes.

Economics: The User's Guide

A Pelican Introduction

Robin Dunbar

What makes us human? 
How did we develop language, thought and culture? 
Why do we need them? 
 
The past 12,000 years represent the only time in the sweep of human history when there has been only one human species. How did this extraordinary proliferation of species come about - and then go extinct? And why did we emerge such intellectual giants? The tale of our origins has inevitably been told through the 'stones and bones' of the archaeological record, yet Robin Dunbar shows it was our social and cognitive changes rather than our physical development which truly made us distinct from other species.

Human Evolution

Orlando Figes

What caused the Russian Revolution? 
 
Did it succeed or fail? 
 
Do we still live with its consequences? 
 
Orlando Figes teaches history at Birkbeck, University of London and is the author of many acclaimed books on Russian history, including A People's Tragedy, which The Times Literary Supplement named as one of the '100 most influential books since the war', Natasha's Dance, The Whisperers, Crimea and Just Send Me Word. The Financial Times called him 'the greatest storyteller of modern Russian historians.'

Revolutionary Russia, 1891-1991

Tim Lang

British food has changed remarkably in the last half century. As we have become wealthier and more discerning, our food has Europeanized (pizza is children's favourite food) and internationalized (we eat the world's cuisines), yet our food culture remains fragmented, a mix of mass 'ultra-processed' substances alongside food as varied and good as anywhere else on the planet. 
 
This is a book on the politics of food: where it comes from, what we eat, and its impact. It argues that the Brexit vote will force us to review our food system. Such an opportunity is sorely needed. After a brief frenzy of concern following the financial shock of 2008 and recent Covid-19 upheaval, the UK government has slumped once more into a vague hope that the food system will keep going on as before. Feeding Britain argues that this and other approaches are short-sighted, against the public interest, and possibly even strategic folly. Setting a new course for UK food is no easy task but it is a process, this book urges, that needs to begin now.

Feeding Britain

Our Food Problems and How to Fix Them

Viorica Marian

Why should we learn more than one language? 
Can it change the way we think? 
Does it have the power to transform how we see the world? 
 
You may think you speak only one language. In fact, your mind is interpreting multiple codes of communication. Some people speak Spanish, some Mandarin. Some speak poetry, some are fluent in maths. Humans are built for multilingualism. 
 
Drawing on cutting-edge research and theory, delivered with wit and lucid insight, psycholinguist Viorica Marian explores the ways in which the mind uses multiple languages and how, in doing so, we can open the doors to unique forms of creativity, brain health and cognitive control. Every new language we speak - whether it is coding or musical notes, Hindi or Arabic - shapes how we extract and interpret information. It alters what we remember, how we perceive ourselves and those around us, how we feel, the insights we have, the decisions we make and the actions we take. 
 
The Power of Language lays bare how we use different linguistic codes to think about the world - and change our place within it. Empowering and practical, this is the perfect guide for anyone interested in how language really works.

The Power of Language

Multilingualism, Self and Society

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