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A History of Britain: The Wars of the British 1603-1776
Simon Schama · back to the book
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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorThe Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857
William Dalrymple · 560 pages
On a dark evening in November 1862, a cheap coffin is buried in eerie silence. There are no lamentations or panegyrics, for the British Commissioner in charge has insisted, 'No vesting will remain to distinguish where the last of the Great Mughals rests.' This Mughal is Bahadur Shah Zafar II, one of the most tolerant and likeable of his remarkable dynasty who found himself leader of a violent and
Nicholas and Alexandra
Robert K. Massie · 613 pages
"A LARGER THAN LIFE DRAMA, SO BIZARRE, SO HEART-RENDING AND, ABOVE ALL, SO APOCALYPTIC, THAT NO NOVELIST WOULD HAVE DARED INVENT IT" —Saturday Review Syndicate The story of the Tsar, his Empress, and the realm they lost. The story of a man, a woman, and the love they shared—and of the obscene monk, Rasputin, who corrupted and destroyed them. "A WONDERFULLY RICH TAPESTRY, the colors fresh and
Killers of the King: The Men Who Dared to Execute Charles I
Charles Spencer · 352 pages
After seven years of fighting in the bloodiest war in Britain's history, Parliament had overpowered King Charles I and now faced a problem: What to do with a defeated king who refused to surrender? Parliamentarians resolved to do the unthinkable, to disregard the Divine Right of Kings and hold Charles I accountable for the appalling suffering and slaughter endured by his people. A tribunal of 135
Rebellion: The History of England from James I to the Glorious Revolution
Peter Ackroyd · 512 pages
Examines the Stuart dynasty during a turbulent seventeenth century marked by civil war, the execution of Charles I, the rule of Oliver Cromwell, and the deposition and exile of James II.
The Lost King of France: How DNA Solved the Mystery of the Murdered Son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
Deborah Cadbury · 336 pages
Ungrateful Daughters: The Stuart Princesses Who Stole Their Father's Crown
Maureen Waller · 467 pages
In 1688, the birth of a Prince of Wales ignited a family quarrel and a revolution. James II's drive toward Catholicism had alienated the nation and his two staunchly Protestant daughters by his first marriage, Mary and Anne. They are the "ungrateful daughters" who usurped their father's crown and stole their brother's birthright. Seven prominent men sent an invitation to William of Orange -- James
The Rasputin File
Edvard Radzinsky · 525 pages
From the bestselling author of Stalin and The Last Tsar comes The Rasputin File, a remarkable biography of the mystical monk and bizarre philanderer whose role in the demise of the Romanovs and the start of the revolution can only now be fully known.For almost a century, historians could only speculate about the role Grigory Rasputin played in the downfall of tsarist Russia. But in 1995 a lost fil
The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra
Helen Rappaport · 518 pages
"They were the Princess Dianas of their day--perhaps the most photographed and talked about young royals of the early twentieth century. The four captivating Russian Grand Duchesses--Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia Romanov--were much admired for their happy dispositions, their looks, the clothes they wore and their privileged lifestyle. Over the years, the story of the four Romanov sisters and
Rasputin: Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs
Douglas Smith · 817 pages
"On the centenary of the death of Rasputin comes a definitive biography that will dramatically change our understanding of this fascinating figure. A hundred years after his murder, Rasputin continues to excite the popular imagination as the personification of evil. Numerous biographies, novels, and films recount his mysterious rise to power as Nicholas and Alexandra's confidant and the guardian o
Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar
Edvard Radzinsky, Edvard Radzinskii · 471 pages
The Shah
Abbas Milani · 488 pages
An Iranian scholar chronicles the life and legacy of the last Shah of Iran, including his role in the creation of the modern Islamic republic.
SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
Mary Beard · 606 pages
A prominent classicist explores ancient Rome and how its citizens adapted the notion of imperial rule, invented the concepts of citizenship and nation, and made laws about those traditionally overlooked in history, including women, slaves, and criminals.
Marie Antoinette: The Journey
Antonia Fraser · 544 pages
"Famously known as the eighteenth-century French queen whose excesses have become legend, Marie Antoinette was blamed for instigating the French Revolution. But the story of her journey, begun as a fourteen-year-old sent from Vienna to marry the future Louis XVI, to her courageous defense before she was sent to the guillotine, reveals a woman of greater complexity and character than we have previo
To the Scaffold: The Life of Marie Antoinette
Carolly Erickson · 384 pages
One of history's most misunderstood figures, Marie Antoinette represents the extravagance and the decadence of pre-Revolution France. Yet there was an innocence about Antoinette, thrust as a child into the chillingly formal French court. Married to the maladroit, ill-mannered Dauphin, Antoinette found pleasure in costly entertainments and garments. She spent lavishly while her overtaxed and increa
Marie-Therese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette's Daughter
Susan Nagel · 448 pages
The biography of Marie Antoinette's only child to survive the revolution and the woman who helped shape the future of nineteenth-century Europe.
Common Sense
Thomas Paine · 60 pages
Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves – and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives – and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilizatio
Dancing to the Precipice: Lucie de la Tour du Pin and the French Revolution
Caroline Moorehead · 504 pages
Her canvases were the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette; the Great Terror; America at the time of Washington and Jefferson; Paris under the Directoire and then under Napoleon; Regency London; the battle of Waterloo; and, for the last years of her life, the Italian ducal courts. Like Saint-Simon at Versailles, Samuel Pepys during the Great Fire of London, or the Goncourt brothers in nineteent
The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia
Candace Fleming · 298 pages
From the acclaimed author of Amelia Lost and The Lincolns comes a heartrending narrative nonfiction page-turner--and a perfect resource for meeting Common Core standards. When Russia's last tsar, Nicholas II, inherited the throne in 1894, he was unprepared to do so. With their four daughters (including Anastasia) and only son, a hemophiliac, Nicholas and his reclusive wife, Alexandra, buried their
Ambition and Desire: The Dangerous Life of Josephine Bonaparte
Kate Williams · 384 pages
From CNN's official royal historian, a highly praised young author with a doctorate from Oxford University, comes the extraordinary rags-to-riches story of the woman who conquered Napoleon's heart -- and with it, an empire.
Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947
Christopher Clark · 800 pages
"Iron Kingdom traces Prussia's involvement in the continent's foundational religious and political conflagrations: from the devastations of the Thirty Years War through centuries of political machinations to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, from the enlightenment of Frederick the Great to the destructive conquests of Napoleon, and from the "iron and blood" policies of Bismarck to the crea
The Spanish Civil War
Hugh Thomas · 910 pages
A masterpiece of the historian's art, Hugh Thomas's *The Spanish Civil War* remains the best, most engrossing narrative of one of the most emblematic and misunderstood wars of the twentieth century. Revised and updated with significant new material, including new revelations about atrocities perpetrated against civilians by both sides in this epic conflict, this "definitive work on the subject" (R
A People's History of the United States
Howard Zinn · 702 pages
Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, *A People's History of the United States* is the only volume to tell America's story from the point of view of -- and in the words of -- America's women, factory workers, African Americans, Native Americans, working poor, and immigrant laborers.
The City-State of Boston: The Rise and Fall of an Atlantic Power, 1630–1865
Mark Peterson · 784 pages