The energy crisis is one of the most pressing and significant problems the world has to face. With limited resources of fossil fuels left, and the additional political and environmental issues that surround their use, it is clear that life on earth cannot continue as it is without the development of alternative sources of power. In Britain, many are rightly wary of expanding the nuclear energy programme. The UK Government's policy of support for wind energy and its attempts to achieve 20% ...

As undisputed leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin was directly responsible for the deaths of up to 60 million of his fellow citizens, a truly horrific figure which confirms him as one of the most notorious mass murderers in history. But Stalin not only waged war against his own people he and his successors regarded nature as an enemy that could be overcome by the might of Soviet technology and the brute force of slave labour. The building of vast networks of canals and the diversion ...

Many decisions which have had enormous historical consequences have been made over the dinner table, and have been accompanied (and perhaps in influenced) by copious amounts of food and wine. In The Course of History Struan Stevenson brings to life ten such moments, exploring the personalities, the issues and of course the food which helped shape the course of history.From the claret consumed on the eve of the Battle of Culloden, through the dinners which decided the fates...

As the Iranian people strive to defeat the medieval religious dictatorship of the mullahs in Iran, it is evermore imperative that we do not lose sight of the larger historical perspective in which this struggle has been shaped. The Iranian political landscape and society are imbued with memories of a 120-year struggle to achieve some form of democratic governance and open society that is so often taken for granted in countries with established democratic rule. This century-long effort has ...

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BYThe New York Times Book Review • The Economist • The Christian Science Monitor • Bloomberg Businessweek • The Globe and MailFrom the bestselling and award-winning author of Paris 1919 comes a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, a fascinating portrait of Europe from 1900 up to the outbreak of World War I.The century since the end of the Napoleonic wars had been the most peaceful era Europe h...

From the bestselling author of Ethical Oil comes a provocative exploration of the shale gas rush. Levant explains what fracking is and explores what its enemies do not want you to know and why it has the potential to change our future.In Groundswell, Ezra Levant examines the fracking revolution. Fracking (from "fracturing") involves injecting millions of gallons of water mixed with sand and chemicals into a well deep underground to fracture shale ...

**A BILL GATES “BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR”A comprehensive account of how energy has shaped 10,000 years of human history, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today’s fossil fuel–driven civilization.**Energy is the only universal currency; it is necessary for getting anything done. The conversion of energy on Earth ranges from terra-forming forces of plate tectonics to cumulative erosive effects of raindrops. Life on Earth depends on the photosynthetic conversion of...

A landmark work of narrative history, Paris 1919 is the first full-scale treatment of the Peace Conference in more than twenty-five years. It offers a scintillating view of those dramatic and fateful days when much of the modern world was sketched out, when countries were created—Iraq, Yugoslavia, Israel—whose troubles haunt us still.Winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize • Winner of the PEN Hessell Tiltman Prize • Win...

Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour.The ‘Great War’, from July 1914 to November 1918, was without parallel. It brought to an end four dynasties, ignited revolution, and forged new nations. It introduced killing on an unprecedented scale, costing an estimated nine million lives. It was the war that destroyed any notion of romance or chivalry in battle; it pulled in combatants from nations across the globe and shattered them, body and mind.The War involved a...

Conor O’Clery has been a witness to some of the major world events of the last thirty years, including the Troubles in Northern Ireland; the ending of the Cold War as viewed from Moscow; the reluctant opening up of China to the West; the Clinton years in the White House; and the 9/11 attacks. As foreign correspondent for The Irish Times, he was the first western journalist to open an office in Moscow at the height of Gorbachev’s glasnost, and he subsequently acted as correspondent from Was...

The definitive environmental history of the twentieth-century world, now updated for the twenty-first.Humans have long transformed the planet, scratching its surface for stones and ores, planting and harvesting crops, sparking fires for light and heat. But since the dawn of industrialization and especially since 1950, our impact has accelerated sharply. Economic, technological, and demographic changes have driven rapid and ongoing shifts in patterns of pollution, h...

The overthrow and execution of Tsar Nicholas II and the Russian Imperial family is a cause célèbre of 20th century history. Andrew Cooks re-investigation of the story finally solves one of the greatest mysteries of world history. The author draws upon new forensic evidence and newly discovered British and Russian Secret Service records reveal the truth about the familys murder, the proposed British rescue of the Imperial family led by Major Stephen Alley, and the Secret Service mission ins...