"A great work, a book that goes truly global in chronicling the history of one of our abiding concerns: the pull and limitations of absolute power." ― St. Petersburg TimesTamerlane, the Ottomans, the Mughals, the Manchus, the British, the Japanese, the Nazis, and the Soviets: All built empires meant to last forever; all were to fail. But, as John Darwin shows in this magisterial book, their empire-building created the world we know today.

The Prospect of Global History takes a new approach to the study of global history, seeking to apply it, rather than advocate it. The volume seeks perspectives on history from East Asian and Islamic sources as well as European ones, and insists on depth in historical analysis. The Prospect of Global History will speak to those interested in medieval and ancient history as well as modern history. Chapters range from historical sociology to economic history, from medieval t...

The British Empire, wrote Adam Smith, 'has hitherto been not an empire, but the project of an empire' and John Darwin offers a magisterial global history of the rise and fall of that great imperial project. The British Empire, he argues, was much more than a group of colonies ruled over by a scattering of British expatriates until eventual independence. It was, above all, a global phenomenon. Its power derived rather less from the assertion of imperial authority than from the fusing togeth...

A breathtaking romp through Tokyo's history from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century, using lots of images, writings and clippings to bring back to life those far-off days.

From the provincial peccadilloes of Prestwich in Manchester to coffee houses and bars by the Bosporus in İstanbul, John Darwin explores life’s three stages of arriving, staying for a bit, and then leaving.A poetic reflection on the ennui of the everyday, intermittent pleasures, and the quest to understand love and belonging from the Gtr Manchester Fringe Festival 2021 Best Spoken Word Performance Award winner.“A collection of acutely and fondly observed everyday acts by eve...

“Whichever way I take I meet myself returning.”A poetic journey from the mills and moors of the industrial north to the meals and mosques of the Byzantine middle-east and back again. I Meet Myself Returning is about finding your feet in our convoluted world and letting them take you to a place to call your own. And, occasionally, stopping off for a pint.“For those of us who struggle with the concept of permanence, who gulp when we’re asked where we’re from and shiver when w...

John Darwin's After Tamerlane, a sweeping six-hundred-year history of empires around the globe, marked him as a historian of "massive erudition" and narrative mastery. In Unfinished Empire, he marshals his gifts to deliver a monumental one-volume history of Britain's imperium-a work that is sure to stand as the most authoritative, most compelling treatment of the subject for a generation.Darwin unfurls the British Empire's beginnings and decline and its extraordin...

Bloomsbury presents After Tamerlane by John Darwin, read by Michael Hajiatonis.Tamerlane, the Ottomans, the Mughals, the Manchus, the British, the Japanese, the Nazis, and the Soviets: All built empires meant to last forever; all were to fail. But, as John Darwin shows in this magisterial book, their empire-building created the world we know today.From the death of Tamerlane in 1405, to America's rise to world "hyperpower," to the resurgence of China and India as g...

**An Apple Best Book of the MonthFrom award-winning journalist and coauthor of The 15:17 to Paris, an affecting human history of the first self-steering bomb**Paveway, the first "smart" bomb, was created to be a more precise and ostensibly humane weapon, reducing civilian casualties. The true impact of the bomb, however, is ever more complex and unpredictable.In The Warhead, Jeffrey Stern tells the story of Paveway through the lives of seven interc...

Freedom is one of the most contested words in our deeply polarized nation. This eye-opening work reveals how this has happened and how it will continue on all fronts, economic, education, healthcare, religion, science, civil justice, and security, unless we reframe the debate with traditional progressive ideas of empathy, integrity, and responsibility.Engaged citizens can regain their power. Our government can function honestly. In this critical time for our country, Lakoff argues ...

King James, often overlooked or, more often, cruelly stereotyped, presents a fascinating figure: a diplomat whose long reigns encompassed extraordinary dramas. James identified himself with the "Mirror of Great Britain," a spectacular jewel commissioned upon his accession to the English throne, which not only furnished him with one of his favorite metaphors―that of the mirror, with its limitless capacity to magnify, illuminate, and distort―but gave symbolic endorsement to his vision of Bri...

A sweeping and insightful grand strategic overview of the American Revolution, highlighting Washington's role in orchestrating victory and creating the US ArmyLed by the Continental Congress, the Americans almost lost the war for independence because their military thinking was badly muddled. Following the victory in 1775 at Bunker Hill, patriot leaders were convinced that the key to victory was the home-grown militia -- local men defending their families and homes...