Knowledge = Power

Dubbed the "pirate queen" by the Vatican and Spain's Philip II,  Elizabeth I was feared and admired by her enemies. Extravagant,  whimsical, and hot-tempered, Elizabeth was the epitome of power. Her  visionary accomplishments were made possible by her daring merchants,  gifted rapscallion adventurers, astronomer philosophers, and her  stalwart Privy Council, including Sir William Cecil, Sir Francis  Walsingham, and Sir Nicholas Bacon. All these men contributed their vast  genius, power, greed, and expertise to the advancement of England. In The Pirate Queen,  historian Susan Ronald offers a fresh look at Elizabeth I, focusing on  her uncanny instinct for financial survival and the superior intellect  that propelled and sustained her rise. The foundation of Elizabeth's  empire was built on a carefully choreographed strategy whereby piracy  transformed England from an impoverished state on the fringes of Europe  into the first building block of an empire that covered two-fifths of  the world. Based on a wealth of historical sources and thousands  of personal letters between Elizabeth and her merchant adventurers,  advisers, and royal "cousins", The Pirate Queen tells the  thrilling story of Elizabeth and the swashbuckling mariners who  terrorized the seas, planted the seedlings of an empire, and amassed  great wealth for themselves and the Crown.

"Human beings have always been mythmakers.” So begins best-selling writer  Karen Armstrong’s concise yet compelling investigation into myth: what  it is, how it has evolved, and why we still so desperately need it. She  takes us from the Paleolithic period and the myths of the hunters right  up to the “Great Western Transformation” of the last five hundred years  and the discrediting of myth by science. The history of myth is the  history of humanity, our stories and beliefs, our curiosity and attempts  to understand the world, which link us to our ancestors and each other.  Heralding a major series of retellings of international myths by  authors from around the world, Armstrong’s characteristically insightful  and eloquent book serves as a brilliant and thought-provoking  introduction to myth in the broadest sense—and explains why if we  dismiss it, we do so at our peril.

“[A] tale of power, perseverance and passion . . . a great story in the hands of a master storyteller.”—The Wall Street Journal   The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Peter the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra, and The Romanovs returns   with another masterpiece of narrative biography, the extraordinary   story of an obscure German princess who became one of the most   remarkable, powerful, and captivating women in history. Born into a   minor noble family, Catherine transformed herself into empress of Russia   by sheer determination. For thirty-four years, the government, foreign   policy, cultural development, and welfare of the Russian people were  in  her hands. She dealt with domestic rebellion, foreign wars, and the   tidal wave of political change and violence churned up by the French   Revolution. Catherine’s family, friends, ministers, generals, lovers,   and enemies—all are here, vividly brought to life. History offers few   stories richer than that of Catherine the Great. In this book, an   eternally fascinating woman is returned to life. “[A] compelling portrait not just of a Russian titan, but also of a flesh-and-blood woman.”—Newsweek   “An absorbing, satisfying biography.”—Los Angeles Times “Juicy and suspenseful.”—The New York Times Book Review   “A great life, indeed, and irresistibly told.”—Salon   NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times • The Washington Post • USA Today • The Boston Globe • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • Newsweek/The Daily Beast • Salon • Vogue • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • The Providence Journal • Washington Examiner • South Florida Sun-Sentinel • BookPage • Bookreporter • Publishers Weekly BONUS: This edition contains a Catherine the Great reader's guide.

'A learned, wise, wonderfully written single volume history of a civilisation that I knew I should know more about' Tom Holland 'Masterful and engrossing...well-paced, eminently readable and  well-timed. A must-read for those who want – and need – to know about  the China of yesterday, today and tomorrow' Peter Frankopan China’s  story is extraordinarily rich and dramatic. Now Michael Wood, one of  the UK's pre-eminent historians, brings it all together in a major new  one-volume history of China that is essential reading for anyone who  wants to understand its burgeoning role in our world today.  China is the oldest living civilisation on earth, but its history is  still surprisingly little known in the wider world. Michael Wood's  sparkling narrative, which mingles the grand sweep with local and  personal stories, woven together with the author’s own travel journals,  is an enthralling account of China’s 4000-year-old tradition, taking in  life stationed on the Great Wall or inside the Forbidden City.  The story is enriched with the latest archaeological and documentary  discoveries; correspondence and court cases going back to the Qin and Han dynasties; family letters from soldiers in the real-life Terracotta Army; stories from Silk Road merchants and Buddhist travellers, along with memoirs and diaries of  emperors, poets and peasants.  In the modern era, the book is full of new insights, with the electrifying manifestos of the feminist revolutionaries Qiu Jin and He Zhen, extraordinary eye-witness accounts of the Japanese invasion, the Great Famine and the Cultural Revolution under Chairman Mao, and fascinating newly published sources for the great turning points in China’s modern history, including the Tiananmen Square crisis of 1989, and the new order of  President Xi Jinping. A compelling portrait of a single civilisation over an immense period  of time, the book is full of intimate detail and colourful voices,  taking us from the desolate Mongolian steppes to the ultra-modern world of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.  It also asks what were the forces that have kept China together for so  long? Why was China overtaken by the west after the 18th century? What  lies behind China’s extraordinary rise today? The Story of China tells a thrilling story of intense drama, fabulous creativity and deep  humanity; a portrait of a country that will be of the greatest  importance to the world in the twenty-first century.

'Of the "Great Powers" that dominated Europe from the eighteenth to the  twentieth centuries, Prussia is the only one to have vanished … Iron Kingdom is not just good: it is everything a history book ought to be … The  nemesis of Prussia has cast such a long shadow that German historians  have tiptoed around the subject. Thus it was left to an Englishman to  write what is surely the best history of Prussia in any language'  Sunday Telegraph

An ideal introduction to the history of Buddhism. Andrew Skilton - a  writer on and practitioner of Buddhism - explains the development of the  basic concepts of Buddhism during its 2,500 years of history and  describes its varied developments in India, Buddhism’s homeland, as well  as its spread across Asia, from Mongolia to Sri Lanka and from Japan to  the Middle East. A fascinating insight into the historical progress of  one of the world’s great religions. "..an excellent synopsis of  current scholarship..."—Alan Sponberg, Professor of Asian Philosophy and  Religion, University of Montana

Of all our great presidents,  Theodore Roosevelt is the only one whose greatness increased out of  office. When he toured Europe in 1910 as plain “Colonel Roosevelt”, he  was hailed as the most famous man in the world. Crowned heads vied to  put him up in their palaces. “If I see another king,” he joked, “I think  I shall bite him.” Had TR won his historic “Bull Moose”  campaign in 1912 (when he outpolled the sitting president, William  Howard Taft), he might have averted World War I, so great was his  international influence. Had he not died in 1919, at the early age of  60, he would unquestionably have been reelected to a third term in the  White House and completed the work he began in 1901 of establishing the  United States as a model democracy, militarily strong and socially  just. This biography by Edmund Morris, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author of The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Rex,  is itself the completion of a trilogy sure to stand as definitive.  Packed with more adventure, variety, drama, humor, and tragedy than a  big novel, yet documented down to the smallest fact, it recounts the  last decade of perhaps the most amazing life in American history. What  other president has written 40 books, hunted lions, founded a third  political party, survived an assassin’s bullet, and explored an unknown  river longer than the Rhine?

Misha Glenny's groundbreaking  study of global organized crime is now the inspiration for an eight-part  AMC crime drama starring James Norton (War and Peace), Juliet Rylance, and David Strathairn. With  the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the  deregulation of international financial markets in 1989, governments and  entrepreneurs alike became intoxicated by dreams of newly opened  markets. But no one could have foreseen that the greatest success story  to arise from these events would be the worldwide rise of organized  crime. Today, it is estimated that illegal trade accounts for one-fifth  of the global GDP. In this fearless and wholly authoritative  investigation of the seemingly insatiable demand for illegal wares,  veteran reporter Misha Glenny travels across five continents to speak  with participants from every level of the global underworld - police,  victims, politicians, and even the criminals themselves. What follows is  a groundbreaking, propulsive look at an unprecedented phenomenon from a  savvy, street-wise guide.

At its height, Renaissance Florence was a center of enormous wealth,  power, and influence. A republican city-state funded by trade and  banking, its often bloody political scene was dominated by rich  mercantile families, the most famous of which were the Medici. This  enthralling book charts the family's huge influence on the political,  economic, and cultural history of Florence. Beginning in the early 1430s  with the rise of the dynasty under the near-legendary Cosimo de Medici,  it moves through their golden era as patrons of some of the most  remarkable artists and architects of the Renaissance, to the era of the  Medici Popes and Grand Dukes, Florence's slide into decay and  bankruptcy, and the end, in 1737, of the Medici line.

From the best-selling author of Islam: A Short History comes an important addition to the Eminent Lives book series. A former Roman Catholic nun and winner of a Muslim Public  Affairs Council Media Award, Karen Armstrong shows how Muhammad's life  can teach us a great deal about our world. More is known about Muhammad  than any other major religion founder, yet he remains mysterious. Born  in 570 CE, he spent six decades spreading his message of peace and  compassion. Yet for many people today, their knowledge of Muhammad is  rife with misconceptions and misinformation, often fueled by bigotry.  Armstrong sets the record straight, shattering the myth that Islam is a  religion of cruelty and violence. One of the world's leading religious  experts, Armstrong is a deeply respected voice in the continuous  struggle for interfaith understanding. Her cogent assessment of  Muhammad's genius and insightful summary of his authentic beliefs are  priceless in this modern world troubled by religious extremism and  intolerance.