When bigotry and power-mania take control, disaster always follows for ordinary people - even when the power is wielded by the Church. Witchcraft, of course, was seen as devil-worship. Those accused - over 100,000 people, mainly women, between 1450 and 1750 - were subjected to the most bestial tortures and usually executed. Witch Hunt examines the real facts of this persecution and the religious hysteria that inspired it, tracing it back to its source....

Pirates have an almost mythical status in the public imagination - we think of rogue heroes riding the high seasand 'X marks the spot'. But this image is flawed at best. Using contemporary sources, Nigel Cawthorne turns the spotlight on the reality of pirate life, revealing the truth behind the legends. It gives us an insight into infamous the men and women who plundered ship and shore, including Captain Kidd, Blackbeard and Mary Read. We learn of...

Military history as told through the lives and deeds of warfare's most famous commanders, from ancient Greece through the World Wars, Vietnam, and the end of the twentieth century. Beginning with Leonides of Sparta, who died at Thermopylae in 480 b.c.e., and ending with General Giap, a Vietnamese leader; Moshe Dayan, commander of the Israeli Defense Force during the 1967 Six-Day War; and Colin Powell, Military Commanders provides an informative overview...

Kings & Queens of England is an entertaining account of the larger-than-life characters that have ruled England through the ages. Divided into easy-reference chapters based on the ruling dynasties of England, it follows the fascinating history of monarchs from the first Saxon kings to the Windsors of the present day. Author Nigel Cawthorne paints vivid portraits of a mixed bunch of rulers ranging from the drunken and debauched merry monarch Charles...

Great battles mark history's turning points, occurring as they do where cultures and ideologies clash. While some battles have been won by the superior force, others have been won by a sheer dogged refusal to surrender in the face of overwhelming odds. Superior weaponry has sometimes brought victory, as at Plassey, while the superior generalship of a Napoleon, a Wellington, or a Marlborough has won the day on other occasions. All the great battles...

The Second World War was the final global conflict of the twentieth century. It involved more combatants, and a wider range of battlefield terrain than any other conflict in history, from the frozen plains of Russia to the baking Libyan desert, and from the atolls of the Pacific to the skies over Britain. In Turning the Tide, Nigel Cawthorne has taken a fresh look at the crucial battles which decided the outcome of the Second World War, beginning...

The air war waged by the Luftwaffe agaon the RAF in the summer and autumn of 1940 was the key event of the World War II. If it had been lost, Hitler would have added the British Isles to his portfolio of subject nations. It was Churchill who coined the phrase 'Battle of Britain' to underscore the peril facing the nation and prepare it for the 'total war' that Hitler was about to unleash. During the campaign the British people were, in...

The Mafia began on a small island in the Mediterranean, Sicily. It grew to become a major political force in Italy, while its tentacles penetrated every aspect of life in the United States. Through drugs, it spread its influence to Britain, Canada and Australia. And through the gangster movies of Hollywood, including The Godfather and Goodfellas, it permeates popular culture. The History of the Mafia is full of blood-chilling characters, from Al Capone,...

This is the Popular Reference edition of the fully illustrated title. History's Greatest Battles covers the gamut of warfare, from huge sea battles to single engagements where regiments dug in and fought on, long past the time for surrender.

According to Winston Churchill, Alan Turing made the single biggest contribution to the Allied victory over Nazi Germany with his code-breaking machine. The world is also indebted to Turing's genius for the modern computer. It was clear that Turing had a remarkable mind from an early age. He taught himself to read in just three weeks. At his first school, the headmistress said, 'I have had clever and hardworking boys, but Alan has genius.' In 1954,...