検索キーワード： 歴史

Between her birth in 1463 as the illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Milan, and her death in 1509 as a member of the powerful Medici family, the life of Caterina Sforza crossed the firmament of Renaissance Italy like a shooting star. She was painted by Botticelli, feted by Pope Sixtus IV, slandered by Macchiavelli and celebrated as a warrior who led her own troops fearlessly into battle. While defending her fortress city-state of Forli, she was prepared to sacrifice her children rather than surrender – yet she was eventually defeated, imprisoned and raped by a Borgia.

With a heart of gold—and the suspense of a classic crime novel—this true story memorializes one man’s split-second decision to chart a new course for generations to come, proving that courage and honor do have the power to make a better life.

Selbst der britische Gegner bewunderte den Mut und die ritterliche Kampfführung des als genial geltenden »Wüstenfuchses«. Ralf Georg Reuth zeigt auch den anderen Rommel – den Mann, der seinem »Führer« bis zum erzwungenen Selbstmord treu blieb und dessen Ruhm nicht zuletzt eine Schöpfung von Joseph Goebbels war. Noch heute erscheint Erwin Rommel vielen als Inbegriff des vorbildlichen deutschen Soldaten.

Libertin, épicurien, esthète et séducteur incorrigible, Giacomo Casanova incarne le 18e siècle. Jouir de chaque instant fut le précepte de toute sa vie. "J'écris ma vie pour me faire rire et j'y réussis" écrit-il. Grâce à ses mémoires où il consigne ses moindres faits et gestes, de 1725 à 1798, nous pénétrons dans l’intime du 18e, des menus, des lieux, des pensées, des goûts de l’époque. Rédigées en français, ses mémoires...

Im Frühjahr 1940 verlässt Amon Leopold Göth die Familie und bricht auf in den "Gangster Gau" des großmäuligen Hans Frank, hier winken Abenteuer und Karriere: Im Februar 1943 wird Göth zum Kommandanten des Zwangsarbeitslagers Plaszów bei Krakau ernannt. 500 Tage wird er als "König von Plaszów" herrschen, Herr über Leben und Tod sein, gefürchtet von Zehntausenden, die schutzlos seiner entsetzlichen Lust am "Abknallen" und "Umlegen" ausgesetzt sind.

England, late 1547. Henry VIII is dead. His 14-year-old daughter Elizabeth is living with the old king's widow Catherine Parr and her new husband Thomas Seymour. Ambitious, charming and dangerous, Seymour begins an overt flirtation with Elizabeth that ends in her being sent away by Catherine. When Catherine dies in autumn 1548 and Seymour is arrested for treason soon after, the scandal explodes into the open...

After the brutal death of his father when he was a teenager, Frederick Thomas fled the stifling racism of the American South and headed for New York City, where he worked as a valet and trained as a singer. Through charisma and cunning, Thomas emigrated to Europe, where his acquired skills as a multilingual maitre d'hôtel allowed him to travel from London to Monte Carlo before settling in Moscow in the glorious days before the 1917 Revolution. There Thomas became a rich and respected nightclub impresario, opening a lavish nightclub called Maxim...

Doc Holliday didn’t begin his career as a gunslinger. The fact that he was known as “Doc” speaks to his first profession. For as sure and true as his aim might have been, his initial career path did not involve shooting bullets—it involved pulling teeth. He was a dentist by trade who ended up becoming a gambler and gunslinger by necessity.

Diana Nammi became a fighter with the Peshmerga when she was only 17. Originally known as Galavezh, she grew up in the Kurdish region of Iran in the 1960s and 70s. She became involved in politics as a teenager and, like many students, played a part in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. But the new Islamic regime tolerated no opposition, and after Kurdistan was brutally attacked, Galavezh found that she had no choice but to become a soldier in the famed military force.

The Wild West had more than its share of rough and tumble characters, some of them more intriguing than others. But few were quite as formidable as Chief Joseph. He led his people through one of the most challenging periods of their existence, when survival itself hung in the balance. Joseph was thrust into leadership of the Nez Perce just as US forces began systematically closing off the vast territories his people had called home for generations.

يروي ناظم الزهاوي في مذكراته «الفتى القادم من بغداد» مسيرة حياته منذ سنواته الأولى في العراق حتى مسيرته السياسية البريطانية. ينقسم الكتاب إلى ثلاثة أبواب كبرى، يعكس كل منها مرحلة مهمة من حياته: طفولته في بغداد، وانتقاله للعيش في المملكة المتحدة، وصعوده إلى الشهرة السياسية وخروجه النهائي من عالم السياسة. يروي الزهاوي كيف شهدت عائلته الاستبداد المتزايد في العراق، وقمع المعارضة، وتحول البلاد إلى دولة يسكنها الخوف. لذلك قررت عائلته الفرار إلى المملكة المتحدة حين كان الزهاوي في الحادية عشرة من عمره، خوفاً من الاضطهاد. يصف المؤلف تحديات التآلف مع اللغة والثقافة والنظام التعليمي البريطاني. وفي سنوات مراهقته، ترسخت اهتماماته بدنيا الأعمال. وقد وفَّر له نجاحه في مجال الأعمال الثقة والمنصة المناسبة لدخول عالم السياسة. وكانت البداية انتخابه نائباً عن حزب المحافظين، ثم تسلمه بضع حقائب وزارية في ضمنها وزارة التعليم ووزارة الخزانة.

The authorised biography of one of the greatest storytellers of all time. "Irresistible. I thought I knew quite a lot about Roald Dahl, but now I know much much more. Donald Sturrock's book lucidly describes a complicated life and relates it to the richness of Dahl's storytelling."Quentin Blake...

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2015 SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE A magisterial life of Ted Hughes – identified recently as the only English poet since the First World War with a claim to true greatness and one of Britain’s most important writers – to be published on National Poetry Day by prize-winning...

An intensely moving account of George III’s doomed attempt to create a happy, harmonious family, written with astonishing emotional force from a stunning new history writer. George III came to the throne in 1760 as a man with a mission. He wanted to be a new kind of king, one whose power was...

A heart-warming story of a woman who devoted her life to helping others. This is the memoir of Joan, who started nursing in the 1940s and whose experiences took her into the Yorkshire mining pits and through the tumult of the 1984-85 miners’ strike. Joan Hart always knew what she wanted to do...

The Sunday Times bestseller ‘Highly readable … deserves to take its place among the first rank of modern royal biographies’ Daily Mail 'Sure footed and sparkling' Ferdinand Mount ‘The narrative is as suspenseful as any thriller. Truly, an excellent read’ Lynn Barber, Sunday Times...

Sir Ranulph Fiennes is uniquely qualified to write a new biography of Captain Scott. This is the first biography of Scott by someone who has experienced the deprivations, the stress and the sheer physical pain that Scott lived through; he has suffered all but the final tragedy endured by the...

Brought to you by Penguin. *Narrated by Helena Bonham Carter* THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK IS 'A MONUMENT TO THE HUMAN SPIRIT' One of the most famous accounts of living under the Nazi regime comes from the diary of a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl, Anne Frank. Edited by her father Otto H. Frank and...

‘Never less than compelling … She consistently succeeds in bringing what might otherwise seem dusty and remote to vivid life’ Tom Holland, Literary Review ‘Starts with an erupting volcano – and then gets more exciting … Wonderfully rich, witty, insightful and wide-ranging’ Sarah...

A biography of Gaius Valerius Catullus, Rome’s first great poet, a dandy who fell in love with another man’s wife and made it known to the world through his verse. This superb book gives a rare portrait of life during one of the most critical moments in world history through the eyes of one...