A provocative history of how nation states arose out of the ashes of World War II, showing how catastrophe, compromise, and contested visions forged the fragile order we still live in today.“A magnificent history . . . Necessary reading for all those who want to understand how the modern world came into being.” —O. A. Westad, author of The Global Cold WarNation states—self-contained territories with their own econo...

Between 1946 and 1963, St. Petersburg was the quintessential Sunbelt city experiencing a post-World War II boom and wrestling with the problems that accompanied rapid growth. The city's old-school techniques of promotion expanded the population from about 60,000 to more than 180,000 in eighteen years. The city developed a split personality--it aimed to be modern but retained a dated, rustic appearance. Follow St. Petersburg author and journalist Jon Wilson as he details how the city coped ...

A sweeping history of the conquest of India by the British, from the first faltering trading stations to the marbled imperial cities, emphasizing the violence of colonial rule and its chaotic inheritanceThe popular image of the British Raj—an era of efficient but officious governors, sycophantic local functionaries, doting amahs, blisteringly hot days and torrid nights—chronicled by Forster and Kipling is glamorous and nostalgic, but entirely fictitious. In this dr...

A provocative history of how nation states arose out of the ashes of World War II, showing how catastrophe, compromise, and contested visions forged the fragile order we still live in today.“A magnificent history of how concepts of territory, political power, and national identity were molded into nation states. Necessary reading for all those who want to understand how the modern world came into being.” -O. A. Westad, author of The Glo...

A bestselling historian shows how the British Empire created the modern world.**“Scrupulous scholarship and a rattling good tale.” —**Wall Street JournalThe British Empire was the largest in all history, its reach the nearest thing to world domination ever achieved. By the eve of the Second World War, over a fifth of the world's land surface and nearly a quarter of the world's population were under some form of British rule. Yet fo...

Famine may be triggered by nature but its outcome arises from politics and ideology. In Three Famines, award-winning author Thomas Keneally uncovers the troubling truth -- that sustained widespread hunger is historically the outcome of government neglect and individual venality. Through the lens of three of the most disastrous famines in modern history -- the potato famine in Ireland, the famine in Bengal in 1943, and the string of famines that plagued Ethiopia in the 1970s and 19...

The British historian and author of Into India delivers "a history that is intelligent, incisive, and eminently readable" ( Kirkus Reviews, starred review).Fully revised with forty thousand new words that take the reader up to present-day India, John Keay's India: A History spans five millennia in a sweeping narrative that tells the story of the peoples of the subcontinent, from their ancient beginnings in the valley of the Indus to the e...

A Concise History of Modern India by Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf, has become a classic in the field since it was first published in 2001. As a fresh interpretation of Indian history from the Mughals to the present, it has informed students across the world. In the third edition of the book, a final chapter charts the dramatic developments of the last twenty years, from 1990 through the Congress electoral victory of 2009, to the rise of the Indian high-tech industry in a countr...

India’s unfolding story, from the ancient Hindu dynasties to the coming of Islam, from the Mughal Empire to the present dayIndia has always been a land of great contradictions. To Alexander the Great, the country was a place of clever naked philosophers and massive armies mounted on elephants – which eventually forced his army to retreat. To ancient Rome, it was a source of luxuries, mainly spices and textiles, paid for in gold—hence the enormous numbers of Roman g...

In the latter part of the nineteenth century,the royal status of Indian princes was under threat in what became a critical period of transition from traditional to imperial rule.Weakened by treaties concluded with the British earlier in the century,the rulers were subject to a concentrated campaign by British officials to turn palace life into a westernised construct of morality,rules and regulations.Young heirs to the throne were exposed to a western education to encourage their enthusias...

Dispersed across India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, Midnight's Descendants-the generations born since the 1947 "midnight hour partition" of British India-are the world's fastest growing population. This vast region and its peoples wield an enormous influence over global economics and geopolitics, yet their impact is too often simplified by accounts that focus solely on one nation and ignore the intricate web of affiliations that shape relations among British India's success...