Die Alte Eidgenossenschaft steht für Freiheit, Unabhängigkeit und Gemeinschaft, doch hinter dieser Fassade verbirgt sich eine faszinierende Geschichte der Eroberungen und territorialen Ausdehnung.
Longlisted for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year AwardA novel economic interpretation of how religions have become so powerful in the modern worldReligion in the twenty-first century is alive and well across the world, despite its apparent decline in North America and parts of Europe.
During the past quarter century, free-market capitalism was recognized not merely as a successful system of wealth creation, but as the key determinant of the health of political and cultural democracy.
A history of the successes of the human rights movement and a case for why human rights workEvidence for Hope makes the case that, yes, human rights work.
The first comprehensive political history of the communist partyVanguard of the Revolution is a sweeping history of one of the most significant political institutions of the modern world.
How Enlightenment Europe rediscovered its identity by measuring itself against the great civilizations of AsiaDuring the long eighteenth century, Europe's travelers, scholars, and intellectuals looked to Asia in a spirit of puzzlement, irony, and openness.
A bold new literary history that says women's writing is defined less by domestic concerns than by an engagement with public lifeIn a bold and sweeping reevaluation of the past two centuries of women's writing, At Home in the World argues that this body of work has been defined less by domestic concerns than by an active engagement with the most pressing issues of public life: from class and religious divisions, slavery, warfare, and labor unrest to democracy, tyranny, globalism, and the clash of cultures.
An intellectual history of scurvy in the eighteenth centuryScurvy, a disease often associated with long stretches of maritime travel, generated sensations exceeding the standard of what was normal.
A sweeping history of twentieth-century Europe that examines its unprecedented destruction-and abiding promiseA sweeping history of twentieth-century Europe, Out of Ashes tells the story of an era of unparalleled violence and barbarity yet also of humanity, prosperity, and promise.
A collection of insightful and revealing quotations on a wide range of subjects from the father of modern politicsNiccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) is the father of modern political thought, but he is also one of the greatest writers of the Renaissance and his wisdom and style extend far beyond politics to encompass a compelling philosophy of life as well.
The first complete biography of an influential historian whose dramatic life intersected with many great events and thinkers of the twentieth centuryThis is the first complete biography of Ernst Kantorowicz (1895-1963), an influential and controversial German-American intellectual whose colorful and dramatic life intersected with many of the great events and thinkers of his time.
An award-winning history of the transformation of Europe between 1989 and todayThe year 1989 brought the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.
A compelling history of atheism in American public lifeA much-maligned minority throughout American history, atheists have been cast as a threat to the nation's moral fabric, barred from holding public office, and branded as irreligious misfits in a nation chosen by God.
The first book to trace the evolution of Russian politics from the Bolsheviks to PutinWhen the Soviet Union collapsed, many hoped that Russia's centuries-long history of autocratic rule might finally end.
Like a great dynasty that falls to ruin and is eventually remembered more for its faults than its feats, Arab nationalism is remembered mostly for its humiliating rout in the 1967 Six Day War, for inter-Arab divisions, and for words and actions distinguished by their meagerness.
An essential biography of the most important book of the Protestant ReformationJohn Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion is a defining book of the Reformation and a pillar of Protestant theology.
A first look at gunpowder's revolutionary impact on China's role in global historyThe Chinese invented gunpowder and began exploring its military uses as early as the 900s, four centuries before the technology passed to the West.
A "e;powerful text"e; (Tavis Smiley) about how religion drove the fight for social justice in modern AmericaAmerican Prophets sheds critical new light on the lives and thought of seven major prophetic figures in twentieth-century America whose social activism was motivated by a deeply felt compassion for those suffering injustice.
Why it's wrong to single out religious liberty for special legal protectionsThis provocative book addresses one of the most enduring puzzles in political philosophy and constitutional theory-why is religion singled out for preferential treatment in both law and public discourse?
How the political events of 1989 shaped Europe after the Cold War1989 explores the momentous events following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the effects they have had on our world ever since.
How radical free-market ideas achieved mainstream dominance in postwar America and BritainBased on archival research and interviews with leading participants in the movement, Masters of the Universe traces the ascendancy of neoliberalism from the academy of interwar Europe to supremacy under Reagan and Thatcher and in the decades since.
A definitive history of the 20th century's first major genocide on its 100th anniversaryStarting in early 1915, the Ottoman Turks began deporting and killing hundreds of thousands of Armenians in the first major genocide of the twentieth century.
A global history of the climate catastrophe caused by the Tambora eruptionWhen Indonesia's Mount Tambora erupted in 1815, it unleashed the most destructive wave of extreme weather the world has witnessed in thousands of years.
Turkey has leapt to international prominence as an economic and political powerhouse under its elected Muslim government, and is looked on by many as a model for other Muslim countries in the wake of the Arab Spring.
For the Western world, the period from 1760 to 1800 was the great revolutionary era in which the outlines of the modern democratic state came into being.
A comprehensive look at the intellectual and cultural innovations of the Weimar periodDuring its short lifespan, the Weimar Republic (1918-33) witnessed an unprecedented flowering of achievements in many areas, including psychology, political theory, physics, philosophy, literary and cultural criticism, and the arts.
A major intellectual biography of Toqueville that restores democracy in America to its essential contextMany American readers like to regard Alexis de Tocqueville as an honorary American and democrat-as the young French aristocrat who came to early America and, enthralled by what he saw, proceeded to write an American book explaining democratic America to itself.
A history of partition seen through the life and fiction of one of the subcontinent's most important modern writersSaadat Hasan Manto (1912-1955) was an established Urdu short story writer and a rising screenwriter in Bombay at the time of India's partition in 1947, and he is perhaps best known for the short stories he wrote following his migration to Lahore in newly formed Pakistan.
The Devil's Tabernacle is the first book to examine in depth the intellectual and cultural impact of the oracles of pagan antiquity on modern European thought.
A sweeping history of the drama, intrigue, and rivalry behind the creation of the postwar economic orderWhen turmoil strikes world monetary and financial markets, leaders invariably call for 'a new Bretton Woods' to prevent catastrophic economic disorder and defuse political conflict.
A colorful, comprehensive, and authoritative account of Machiavelli's life and thoughtThis is a colorful, comprehensive, and authoritative introduction to the life and work of the Florentine statesman, writer, and political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527).
Power to the People examines the varied but interconnected relationships between energy consumption and economic development in Europe over the last five centuries.
What the loans and defaults of a sixteenth-century Spanish king can tell us about sovereign debt todayWhy do lenders time and again loan money to sovereign borrowers who promptly go bankrupt?
A fresh introduction to-and bold new interpretation of-Machiavelli's PrinceIn Redeeming "e;The Prince,"e; one of the world's leading Machiavelli scholars puts forth a startling new interpretation of arguably the most influential but widely misunderstood book in the Western political tradition.
How The Book of Common Prayer became one of the most influential works in the English languageWhile many of us are familiar with such famous words as, "e;Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here.
A Nobel Prize-winning economist tells the remarkable story of how the world has grown healthier, wealthier, but also more unequal over the past two and half centuriesThe world is a better place than it used to be.
How civility has shaped and been shaped by historical and social forces, and why it is in danger todayCivility is desirable and possible, but can this fragile ideal be guaranteed?
