A gripping history of the Mediterranean campaigns from the first rumblings of conflict through the Second World War and into the uneasy peace of the late 1940s.The Mediterranean Sea lies at the very heart of recent world history. To the British during the Second World War, the Mediterranean was the world’s great thoroughfare. To the Americans, it represented the answer to anti-imperialism. And to Mussolini, it encapsulated his violent vision of conquest. These three great powers at...

A deeply researched history of assassination in the modern world, from Franz Ferdinand to Osama bin LadenArchduke Franz Ferdinand, Leon Trotsky, Reinhard Heydrich, Mahatma Gandhi, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, Osama bin Laden, Qasem Soleimani: assassination—the murder of a specific individual by an organised conspiracy in pursuit of political ends—has rarely failed to grip the imagination.In this incisive new history, S...

From the playing fields of Eton via the horrors of the Western Front to the pinnacle of political power in 20th-century Britain – a brilliant collective biography of Harold Macmillan, Lord Salisbury, Oliver Lyttleton and Harry Crookshank.Harold Macmillan, Oliver Lyttleton, Bobbety Cranbourne and Harry Crookshank all arrived at Eton in 1906, all served on the Western Front in the same battalion of the Grenadier Guards and all served in Cabinet under Winston Churchill during World Wa...

As John le Carré's fictional intelligence men admit, it was the case histories - constructed narratives serving shifting agendas - that shaped the British intelligence machine, rather than their personal experience of secret operations.Secret History demonstrates that a critical scrutiny of internal "after action" assessments of intelligence prepared by British officials provides an invaluable and original perspective on the emergence of British intelligence culture over a...

As John le Carré's fictional intelligence men admit, it was the case histories - constructed narratives serving shifting agendas - that shaped the British intelligence machine, rather than their personal experience of secret operations.Secret History demonstrates that a critical scrutiny of internal "after action" assessments of intelligence prepared by British officials provides an invaluable and original perspective on the emergence of British intelligence culture over a...

El Alamein was one of the pivotal battles of the Second World War, fought by armies and air forces on the cutting edge of military technology. Yet Alamein has always had a patchy reputation - with many commentators willing to knock its importance. This book explains just why El Alamein is such a controversial battle. Based on an intensive reading of the contemporary sources, in particular the extensive and recently declassified British bugging of Axis prisoners of war, military historian S...

A deeply researched history of assassination in the modern world, from Franz Ferdinand to Osama bin LadenArchduke Franz Ferdinand, Leon Trotsky, Reinhard Heydrich, Mahatma Gandhi, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, Osama bin Laden, Qasem Soleimani: assassination—the murder of a specific individual by an organized conspiracy in pursuit of political ends—has rarely failed to grip the imagination.In this incisive new history, S...

This political biography reveals how the legendary Prime Minister was the driving force in the fight against evil during WWII.How Churchill Saved Civilization examines how Winston Churchill’s wisdom and fortitude were central to the Allied victory against the forces of Fascism in the Second World War. John Harte shows how Churchill was the first to see the early warning signs of unrest in Germany, how he opposed the British policy of appeasement that encou...

This special ebook has been created by historian Saul David from his acclaimed work 100 Days to Victory: How the Great War was Fought and Won, which was described by the Mail on Sunday as 'Inspired' and by Charles Spencer as 'A work of great originality and insight'. Through key dates from the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, to the capture of Jerusalem, Saul David's gripping narrative is an enthralling tribute to a generation of men and women whose sacrifice should never ...

This "immaculately researched and compellingly written" WWII history sheds new light on Britain's critical victory against Nazi invasion ( The New Criterion).In the summer of 1940, the Nazi war machine was at its zenith. France, Denmark, Norway, and the Low Countries were all under occupation. Only Britain stood in the way of the complete triumph, and Hitler planned a two-pronged offensive?a blistering aerial bombardment followed by a land invasion?to subdu...

After the unprecedented destruction of the Great War, the world longed for a lasting peace. The victors, however, valued vengeance even more than stability and demanded a massive indemnity from Germany in order to keep it from rearming. The results, as eminent historian Norman Stone describes in this authoritative history, were disastrous.In World War Two, Stone provides a remarkably concise account of the deadliest war of human history, showing how the conflict roared to ...

The First World War seems to have touched almost every family in Britain. Most people will have had a relative in their family tree that served in the armed forces between 1914 and 1918. Unfortunately this is no longer living memory but has slipped into recorded history. There is now resurgence in interest as the centenary is commemorated and many people realize they know so little about the war that was supposed to end all wars. How did it start? Why was Britain involved? Who were our all...