Melancholy borders

mobility, migration, and exclusion in global history

A major contribution to the burgeoning field of global migration history, this book explores the historical clash between transnational networks of migrant mobility with state attempts to control them. Showcasing the latest research in the field, Melancholy Borders brings together a wide range of scholarship ...

Down old roads

A journey through the history of Europe

For a million years people have been travelling throughout Europe, from the mysterious homo antecessor who left his footprints on the coast of England to travellers on the motorways of today. Under every footstep lies an older one, under every paved road a donkey trail ...

The Pyrenees

a human history

A fascinating account of the Pyrenees and their people—from prehistoric settlement to the present dayThe Pyrenees dominate the landscape between France and Spain, stretching from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. Long thought of as an impassable, unspoiled wilderness, the mountains are often seen as ...

The Steppe and its empires

the Russian Empire and its Eurasian counterparts

A broad comparative study that highlights the importance of the Eurasian steppe and its impact on the arc of Russian history Throughout its existence, Russia has been a hybrid empire shaped by both Europe and Asia. Focusing on the formation of the Russian state between ...

Leaning seaward

Japan as a maritime great power

An examination of Japan's maritime resurgence in an age of strategic competition This book is the first to examine Japan as a comprehensive maritime power in the twenty-first century and to consider what that status means in an age of great power competition. Geoffrey ...

Taiwan

a people's history

While most English-language histories of Taiwan focus on its geopolitical role, this history centres on the people of Taiwan themselves and explores how they have formed a unique polity, telling the story of the Indigenous Taiwanese, the Hoklo and Hakka who came from China before ...

The Scythians

lost civilizations

The Scythians offers a bold new take on the horse-riding peoples who once inhabited the vast steppe lands from the Black Sea to the Siberian Altai. Drawing on archaeological finds, ancient texts and comparative insights, Caspar Meyer shows how these communities forged dynamic networks rooted ...

A womb of one's own

lost histories of childbirth in ancient Rome

A bold new history of women's health, brought to life through ancient women's stories of pregnancy and birth. In the well-trod history of the Roman Empire, a pivotal moment has long gone unnoticed: It was in ancient Rome that medical men first set ...

The child follows the womb

gender, reproduction, and Roman slavery

A new and incisive exploration of female slavery and reproduction in ancient Rome One of ancient Rome's most significant legacies is a legal framework for hereditary slavery. Under the Roman principle that would come to be known as partus sequitur ventrem (the offspring follows ...

Behind Caesar's back

rumor, gossip, and the making of the Roman emperors

A thrilling exploration of what Romans thought about their emperors, and how rumors and gossip-ranging from new taxes to rulers' sex lives-shaped leadership Traversing more than seven hundred years of Roman history, this book explores how everyday Romans swapped gossip, spread rumors, told jokes, and ...

The medieval guide to healthy living

We often think of medieval medicine as strange, unhygienic and unscientific, but The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living reveals a far richer story. Long before modern wellness trends, people in the Middle Ages were actively thinking about how to live well. They followed detailed health ...

Crusader armies

the untold story of the wars for the Holy Land

A major new history of the Crusades that illuminates the strength and sophistication of the Western and Muslim armies During the Crusades, the Western and Muslim armies developed various highly sophisticated strategies of both attack and defense, which evolved during the course of the battles ...

Hariulf's history of St Riquier

A new and accessible translation of Hariulf's History of St Riquier, this book examines the history of a monastic community from the seventh to the eleventh century. It covers the ascetic life of the founding saint and the development of the community under the ...

Empress Matilda

queen of the Romans, ruler of the English

An authoritative new biography of Empress Matilda Born in 1102, Empress Matilda combined the blood of two dynasties: the house of Wessex and their conquerors, the dukes of Normandy. As a widowed German empress, she was named as heir successor by her father, Henry I ...

The world's reformation

how Protestantism became a global religion

Protestantism revolutionised early modern Europe. Radical theologians transformed the lives of thousands across the continent, irrevocably changing politics and society. But what about beyond Europe's borders? Was global Christianity just a Catholic endeavour? Alec Ryrie explores the untold history of how Protestants tried to ...

The first emancipation

the forgotten history of abolition in revolutionary France

A new history of slavery and the French Revolution The First Emancipation is a dramatic account of how slavery and race profoundly influenced the course of the French Revolution and had a central impact on the lives of key leaders, including Mirabeau, Robespierre, Toussaint Louverture ...

Empire with a vengeance

honour and revenge in European colonial warfare, 1815-1914

An absorbing new history of European colonialism, showing how ideas of retribution and revenge were used to justify violent conquest and rule. Today, the use of military force to punish enemies is strictly prohibited under international law. It is also a widely accepted principle that ...

Jean-Paul Marat

prophet of terror

A landmark biography of one of the most notorious and controversial protagonists of the French Revolution-Jean-Paul Marat. Who better to pen an authoritative biography of Jean-Paul Marat (1743-93) than preeminent historian of France Keith Michael Baker? Decades in the making, this monumental work takes readers ...

Desk revolutionaries

the men of the French directory, 1795-9

The French Directory is often dismissed as an uninspiring interlude between revolutionary fervour and Napoleonic legend, yet its story is far richer than its reputation suggests. This book shifts the focus from the regime to the remarkable men who shaped it - a cohort of jurists ...

Desk revolutionaries

the men of the French directory, 1795-9

The French Directory is often dismissed as an uninspiring interlude between revolutionary fervour and Napoleonic legend, yet its story is far richer than its reputation suggests. This book shifts the focus from the regime to the remarkable men who shaped it - a cohort of jurists ...