Pocket Essentials imprint: 60 books

Winston Churchill was a soldier, writer, and politician and, after World War II, he became one of the world's greatest statesmen. But his reputation rests on his role as a war leader and, in particular, on the period between May 1940 and July 1941, when Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany. Since...

Western civilization began with the Greeks. From the highpoint of the 5th century BC through the cultural triumphs of the Alexandrian era to their impact on the developing Roman empire, the Greeks shaped the philosophy, art, architecture, and literature of the Mediterranean world. Beginning with the...

From the beginnings of Chinese prehistory right through to internet censorship, a comprehensive introduction to the sprawling history of this enormous countryAn absorbing introduction to more than 4,000 years of Chinese history, this book tells the stories of the tyrants, despots, femmes fatales,...

After nearly 1,000 books, half a dozen journals, two official inquiries, several million pages of declassified documents, dozens of TV documentaries, and hundreds of websites, is there anything left to say about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy? Hell, yes. The Kennedy assassination remains...

Now in paperback, a history of a neglected yet vital aspect of World War I historyImages of World War I in the popular consciousness normally involve the bloody attrition of trench warfare, the miles of mud, the shattered earth, and the tangled miles of barbed wire. However there was another significant...

So who was Jack the Ripper? No-one in the annals of crime is capable of arousing such passionate debate as the perpetrator of the Whitechapel Murders in 1888. Was he a demented Royal, a Masonic assassin, a sexually-frustrated artist, a member of the Czarist secret police, a crazed reformist or even...

The world of Freemasonry exerts a powerful influence on the modern imagination. In an age when perceived notions of history are being increasingly questioned and re-examined it is perhaps inevitable that secretive societies such as the Freemasons find themselves at the center of considerable speculation...

Alchemy has traditionally been viewed as 'the history of an error', an example of medieval gullibility and greed, in which alchemists tried to turn lead into gold, create fabulous wealth and find the elixir of life. But alchemy has also been described as 'the mightiest secret that a man can possess',...

A comprehensive introduction to the sprawling history of this enormous continent, from the dawn of human time in prehistoric Africa right through to Arab Spring Beginning with the origins of the human race and the development of stone age technology, this history of the cradle of civilization moves...

In recent years the term "psychogeography" has been used to illustrate a bewildering array of ideas from ley lines and the occult, to urban walking and political radicalism. But where does it come from and what exactly does it mean? This book examines the origins of psychogeography in the...

Where did the Universe come from? The single biggest and most difficult question that there is. From early religions through Greek Philosophy and Western Science, man has always attempted to discover the meaning of our place in the Universe. In the last twenty years these debates have all been stood...

The publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859 was the culmination of more than 20 years of work by Charles Darwin, and the ideas he presented in it would lead to a fundamental change in the way we think about life on earth. Evolution was controversial at the time and now, as the bicentenary...

Now in paperback, a concise guide to one of the bloodiest periods of medieval ChristendomThe first crusade was set in motion by Pope Urban II in 1095 and culminated in the capture of Jerusalem from the Muslims four years later. In 1291 the fall of Acre marked the loss of the last Christian enclave...

Catharism was the most successful heresy of the Middle Ages. Flourishing principally in the Languedoc and Italy, the Cathars taught that the world is evil and must be transcended through a simple life of prayer, work, fasting, and non-violence. They believed themselves to be the heirs of the true...