Georgi Dimitrov (1882–1949) was a high-ranking Bulgarian and Soviet official, one of the most prominent leaders of the international Communist movement and a trusted member of Stalin’s inner circle.
Rhetoric during and after the Cold War years has painted starkly contrasting portraits of Cuba’s Fidel Castro: an unblemished idealist on the one hand, a ruthless dictator on the other.
Pulitzer Prize Finalist: A biography of the wildly colorful eighteenth-century British politician who became "e;the toast of American revolutionaries"e; (Booklist).
Clemens August Graf von Galen, Bishop of Münster from 1933 until his death in 1946, is renowned for his opposition to Nazism, most notably for his public preaching in 1941 against Hitler’s euthanasia project to rid the country of sick, elderly, mentally retarded, and disabled Germans.
A plainspoken, racy patrician who distrusted democracy but opposed slavery and championed freedom for all minorities, an important player in the American Revolution, later an astute critic of the French Revolution, Gouverneur Morris remains an enigma among the founding generation.
“It was the arbitrary nature of the serfholder’s power that weighed on serfs like Nikitenko, for as they discovered, even the most benevolent patron could turn overnight into an overbearing tyrant.
Fascinating biography of a 19th-century celebrity chefRarely has a man defined the spirit of an age as well as Alexis Soyer: celebrity chef, best-selling author, entrepreneur, inventor, philanthropist and Crimean war hero.
Mistresses and wives, mothers and daughters - Antonia Fraser brilliantly explores the relationships which existed between The Sun King and the women in his life.
'Masterly' - Robert Harris, author of Imperium 'Essential reading for anyone interested in Ancient Rome' Independent*****Caesar Augustus schemed and fought his way to absolute power.
Winner of the British Book Awards History Book of the YearLonglisted for the Samuel Johnson PrizeThis thrilling biography of Stalin and his entourage during the terrifying decades of his supreme power transforms our understanding of Stalin as Soviet dictator, Marxist leader and Russian tsar.
Benjamin Disraeli was the most gifted parliamentarian of the nineteenth century and a superb orator, writer and wit - but how much do we really know about the man behind the words?
The four beautiful, cultured and clever daughters of the Count and Countess of Provence made illustrious marriages and lived at the epicentre of political power and intrigue in 13th-century Europe.
This reexamination of the controversial role Emperor Hirohito played during the Pacific War gives particular attention to the question: If the emperor could not stop Japan from going to war with the Allied Powers in 1941, why was he able to play a crucial role in ending the war in 1945?
Savant Singh (16941764), the Rajput prince of Kishangarh-Rupnagar, is famous for commissioning beautiful works of miniature painting and composing devotional (bhakti) poetry to Krishna under the nom de plume Nagaridas.
The story of the prophet Elijah's transformation from fierce zealot to compassionate hero and cherished figure in Jewish tradition "e;In a series on Jewish Lives, this volume is about the Jewish life-the one that goes on forever.
Clemens August Graf von Galen, Bishop of Münster from 1933 until his death in 1946, is renowned for his opposition to Nazism, most notably for his public preaching in 1941 against Hitler’s euthanasia project to rid the country of sick, elderly, mentally retarded, and disabled Germans.
From the prizewinning Jewish Lives series, an insider’s perspective on the life and influence of Israel’s first native-born prime minister, his bold peace initiatives, and his tragic assassination More than two decades have passed since prime minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination in 1995, yet he remains an unusually intriguing and admired modern leader.
From the prizewinning Jewish Lives series, an insightful new biography of the most controversial and perhaps most fervent of all Zionist political figures Vladimir Jabotinsky (1880–1940) was a man of huge paradoxes and contradictions and has been the most misunderstood of all Zionist politicians--a first-rate novelist, a celebrated Russian journalist, and the founder of the branch of Zionism now headed by Benjamin Netanyahu.