C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd – förlag

Animism' is now an important term for describing ways in which some people understand and engage respectfully with the larger-than-human world. Its central theme is our relationship with our other-than-human neighbours, such as animals, plants, rocks, and kettles, rooted in the understanding that the term 'person' includes more than humans. Graham Harvey explores the animist cultures of Native Americans, Maori, Aboriginal Australians and eco-Pagans, introducing their diversity and considering the linguistic, performative, ecological and activist implications of these different animisms.

‘A fascinating view of American politics through the eyes of an observer intimately familiar with Vladimir Putin’s Russia … an impressively detailed list of parallels.’ — Financial Times ‘Should make readers of all political persuasions think twice about American politics.’ — Anne Applebaum Has Russia brought about regime change in the USA?The maelstrom following Donald Trump’s 2025 return to the US presidency left many bemused and disoriented. But for Russia-watchers, what unfolded was grimly familiar. So many of the Trump administration’s destructive actions have precisely aligned with the Kremlin’s own objectives; and to a startling extent, Trump’s America is beginning to mimic Russia itself.Abroad, Trump has demanded the annexation of neighbours, and embraced war crimes in Iran and the Caribbean. At home, the war on truth and history, purges and the weaponisation of justice, the deployment of masked federal paramilitaries to the streets of major cities and more all mirror Putin’s own consolidation of power. Dismantling obstacles to Russia’s ambitions, whether they threaten Europe or America itself, is a defining feature of Trump’s second presidency. Determination to force Ukraine’s surrender to Russia is just the clearest example among many.Keir Giles examines America’s transformation through the prism of Kremlinology. What he reveals should alarm us all.A disturbing account of Moscow’s ideological capture of the American ruling elite, the consequences of which are only now coming to light. From the author of Who Will Defend Europe?, an FT ‘Book of the Year’ Clearly reveals how Trump’s America is mimicking Putin’s Russia

‘An incisive tour d’horizon… this insightful book is … replete with thoughts that have broad strategic implications.’ — Professor John Arquilla, Journal of Military HistoryUpdated in paperback editionAn essential guide to understanding war and information on today's data-saturated battlefields--from Ukraine to Gaza and beyond.Thanks to smartphones, war is everywhere, all the time. Anyone can view, analyse and comment on photos, videos or other warzone media. Where did this technology come from? And what does it mean for the future of war?This book explains why you see what you do on your phone, and how these devices shape our knowledge, conduct and representation of war in the 2020s. It shows why smartphones are indispensable in peace and wartime: every device is a potential weapon, lines blur between war and daily life, and conflict becomes a shared digital experience. Social media platforms displace state-controlled narratives, amplifying violence and shaping war's legitimacy. Apps democratise conflict, enabling anyone to identify and attack perceived enemies. As the Ukraine war has shown, this new reality involves complex, unevenly distributed infrastructures, merging civilian communication with military targeting.With war accelerating beyond our comprehension, militaries have raced to benefit from and adapt to the smartphone age. Matthew Ford explores critical questions about today's hyper-connected battlefield.What does it mean for the future of war to have tech at our fingertips?What happens when civilian communication merges with military targeting?The first war studies book to focus specifically on the issue of the smartphone

Decades before Race Across the World, six friends made the epic journey from London to Singapore and back in two Land Rovers.Foreword by SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH ‘Delightful ... written with humour and beguiling gusto.’ — TLSWhy not? No-one had ever done it: one of the longest of all overland journeys, from the English Channel to Singapore. Several expeditions had tried. Some had reached the Persian deserts; a few, the Indian plains. But none had gone further: over the jungle-clad Assamese mountains, across northern Burma, to Thailand and Malaya. It was 1955. For the final 3,000 miles, it seemed, there were ‘too many rivers and too few roads’. But no-one really knew...They were undergraduates with no money, no cars—no nothing, except cool audacity. They wheedled and cajoled, coaxing the BBC into supplying film for a possible series; ‘persuading’ Rover to lend them two factory-fresh off-road vehicles; sweet-talking a book publisher into offering an advance. By the time they set off, their eighty-plus sponsors ranged from whiskey distillers to collapsible bucket–makers. Seven months and 12,000 miles later, two weary, police-escorted Land Rovers rolled into Singapore to flash-bulbs and champagne. Here, their bestseller is republished, with a foreword by Sir David Attenborough. He had given them that film, after all.A travel writing classic that has sold over 100,000 copies worldwide A group of university students successfully undertook the overland journey in Land Rovers from London to Singapore and back, the first time the drive was ever completed The journey and the photos accompanying it are a fascinating piece of history, espe-cially given that the route taken is now largely impassable due to entrenched local conflicts

Whether it’s working for free in exchange for ‘experience’, enduring poor treatment in the name of being ‘part of the family’, or clocking serious overtime for a good cause, more and more of us are pushed to make sacrifices for the privilege of being able to do work we enjoy.Work Won’t Love You Back examines how we all bought into this ‘labour of love’ myth: the idea that certain work is not really work, and should be done for the sake of passion rather than pay. Through the lives and experiences of various workers—from the unpaid intern and the overworked teacher, to the nonprofit employee, the domestic worker and even the professional athlete—this compelling book reveals how we’ve all been tricked into a new tyranny of work.Sarah Jaffe argues that understanding the labour of love trap will empower us to work less and demand what our work is worth. Once freed, we can finally figure out what actually gives us joy, pleasure and satisfaction.

The story of the French far right's unstoppable rise--from the woes of a broken society to the powerful personalities upending the status quo. ‘After more than 30 years at the FT … this is [Mallet’s] account of how Marine Le Pen and her National Rally came to shape European politics.’― Financial Times 'A crisply written, meticulously researched narrative.' ― The ObserverFrance's next presidential election is due by 2027 at the latest; and the far-right Rassemblement National is favoured to win.Founded by the antisemitic Jean-Marie Le Pen, the RN--previously the Front National--was a fringe entity until daughter Marine took over. She 'detoxified' the party, then brought in telegenic young protégé Jordan Bardella as its face in the 2020s. Together, they echo voters' economic grievances and disgust at French political culture, while blasting 'mass immigration' of Muslims and foreign 'criminals'--all starkly reminiscent of Donald Trump's strategy in winning the White House. France--central to the European project--is the far right's next great prize.In 2024, the RN became the largest party in both the EU Parliament and the French Assembly. In vivid, sharp prose, from the halls of power to the campaign trail, veteran correspondent Victor Mallet explains how the far right won over the country and became a government in waiting--one preparing to transform France, Europe and the world.

Henrik Meinander paints a brisk and bold picture of the history of Finland from integrated part of the Swedish kingdom to autonomous Grand Duchy within the Russian empire, gradually transformed and maturing into a conscious nation, independent state and skilful adapter of modern technology. The main geographical context for his study is the Baltic region, and the author links his analysis to structural developments and turning points in European history. The book blends politics, economy and culture to show how human and natural resources in Finland have been utilized and the impact its cultural heritage and technological innovation have had on its development. In a departure from most conventional approaches, Meinander gives greater emphasis to recent and contemporary events. In other words, he puts Finland into a range of historical contexts in its Baltic and European settings to highlight how both together have formed Finland into what it is at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Against a backdrop of Islamophobia, Europeans are increasingly airbrushing from history their cultural debt to the Muslim world. But this legacy lives on in some of Europe's most recognisable buildings, from Notre-Dame Cathedral to the Houses of Parliament.This beautifully illustrated book reveals the Arab and Islamic roots of Europe's architectural heritage. Diana Darke traces ideas and styles from vibrant Middle Eastern centres like Damascus, Baghdad and Cairo, via Muslim Spain, Venice and Sicily into Europe. She describes how medieval crusaders, pilgrims and merchants encountered Arab Muslim culture on their way to the Holy Land; and explores more recent artistic interaction between Ottoman and Western cultures, including Sir Christopher Wren's inspirations in the 'Saracen' style of Gothic architecture.Recovering this long yet overlooked history of architectural 'borrowing', Stealing from the Saracens is a rich tale of cultural exchange, shedding new light on Europe's greatest landmarks.A New Statesman Book of the Year 2020, chosen by William Dalrymple.A BBC History Magazine Best Book of 2020.

This authoritative book proposes a fresh perspective on international migration, offering decisive answers to the big questions, and dismantling the main myths surrounding one of the most salient issues of today's global politics. Who are these migrants? Do they steal our jobs? Can we help them in their home countries? Do border controls improve security? Are open borders desirable? Leila Simona Talani and Matilde Rosina address these issues and more in their deeply researched study of migration into both Europe and the United States.Assessing globalisation's impact on international migration, the authors find that it is virtually impossible to stop contemporary flows from the Global South to North. In this context, policies designed to control, limit or deter immigration simply transform some or all regular migrants into irregular ones--exacerbating insecurity for citizens of the receiving state, and criminalising the migrants.Through empirical research including original surveys and interviews, Talani and Rosina demonstrate conclusively that the only solution to this short-circuit world of securitisation and criminalisation is for the Global North to open its doors to the migrants already, inevitably, coming through--particularly since the evidence shows that regularising migration is a positive-sum game, in economic, social and security terms.

‘Liana Fix warns that her country’s old demons — and Europe’s fraught history with German military power — should not be forgotten … She offers solutions. It is worth hearing her out.’ — Financial Times, a ‘Best Book of the Week’An urgent, incisive assessment of Germany’s return to military power and Europe’s security as Russian aggression rises and US reliability falters. After eighty years of restraint, Germany is returning to military power. For many years, German political culture rested on the conviction that military force belonged to a darker past—and that security could be outsourced to the United States or replaced by trade and diplomacy. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Trump’s return to the White House have shattered these illusions.The threat of Russian aggression and the risk of US abandonment have triggered a German rearmament of historic proportions. But this rearmament also poses a dilemma. With right-wing populism rising at home, can Germany assume a greater military role without reviving old fears among its neighbours or undermining European stability? Can it become a credible security provider while remaining firmly anchored in liberal democratic values?This timely, important book analyses Germany’s foreign policy and its relationship with military power from 1945 to the present, and explores the choices and alternatives for European security in the next decade and beyond. Challenging Germany’s ‘myth of pacifism’, Liana Fix argues that, as the post-war order fades, Germany can—and must—become a military power capable of protecting Europe when America will not.Argues that Germany must become a military power once again as the post-war order fades. A timely analysis that takes into consideration Germany’s unique history in the world wars of the 20thc. Dr. Liana Fix is an expert on German and European foreign and security policy with a media profile.

In one of the world's most intractable and under-reported rebellions, the Naxalites have been engaged in a decades-long battle with the Indian state. Presented in the media as a deadly terrorist group, the movement is made up of Marxist ideologues and lower-caste and tribal combatants who seek to overthrow a system that has abused them.In 2010, anthropologist Alpa Shah embarked on a seven-night trek with some of these communist guerrillas, walking 250 kilometres through the dense, hilly forests of eastern India. Speaking to leaders and living for years with villagers in guerrilla strongholds, Shah seeks to understand how and why some of India's poor have shunned the world's largest democracy and taken up arms to fight for a fairer society--and asks whether they might be undermining their own aims.Nightmarch is a compelling reflection on dispossession and conflict at the heart of contemporary India.SHORT-LISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING, 2019SHORT-LISTED FOR THE NEW INDIA FOUNDATION BOOK PRIZE, 2019WINNER OF THE 2020 ASSOCIATION FOR POLITICAL AND LEGAL ANTHROPOLOGY BOOK PRIZEA 2018 New Statesman Book of the Year

The Zambezi is the fourth-longest river in Africa, and one of the continent's principal arteries of movement, migration, conquest and commerce. In this book, historian Malyn Newitt quotes rarely used Portuguese sources that throw vivid light on the culture of the river peoples and their relations with the Portuguese creole society of the prazos. Hitherto unused manuscript material illustrates Portuguese and British colonial rule over the people of the long-lived Lunda kingdoms, and the Lozi of the Barotse Floodplain. The Zambezi became a war zone during the 'Scramble for Africa', the struggle for independence and the civil wars that followed the departure of colonial powers. Recent history has also seen the river's wild nature tamed by the introduction of steamers and the building of bridges and dams. These developments have changed the character of the waterway, and impacted--often drastically--the ecological systems of the valley and those settled along its course. 'The Zambezi' traces the history of the communities that have lived along this great river; their relationship with the states formed on the high veldt; and the ways they have adapted to the vagaries of the Zambezi itself, with its annual floods, turbulent rapids and dramatic gorges.

Hinduism is one of the world's oldest and greatest religious traditions. In captivating prose, Shashi Tharoor untangles its origins, its key philosophical concepts and texts. He explores everyday Hindu beliefs and practices, from worship to pilgrimage to caste, and touchingly reflects on his personal beliefs and relationship with the religion.Not one to shy from controversy, Tharoor is unsparing in his criticism of 'Hindutva', an extremist, nationalist Hinduism endorsed by India's current government. He argues urgently and persuasively that it is precisely because of Hinduism's rich diversity that India has survived and thrived as a plural, secular nation. If narrow fundamentalism wins out, Indian democracy itself is in peril.

Winner of the US - Russia Relations Book Prize from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts UniversityVladimir Putin's first invasion of Ukraine, in 2014, set off a global economic clash, as the West used its clout with international markets to deter and penalise the Kremlin. The battlelines of this 'war by other means' traversed a series of deep economic connections, built up during Russia's oil, gas and commodities boom: global equity and capital markets, and transnational kleptocracy. Maximilian Hess's startling book lifts the lid on Russia's response to Western sanctions, and the ensuing skirmishes in London's courts, on Swiss trading desks and in boardrooms in New Delhi. He explores how pipelines, mines, loans and crypto-markets were weaponised. This narrative sets the stage for Putin's all-out assault on Kyiv in February 2022, which turned financial, food and fuel markets into bona fide battlefields, bringing the fight into everyone's home, from Pennsylvania to Pakistan. Rather than a 'new Cold War', we are witnessing a conflict over finance, energy and capital markets. How such economic warfare turns out will determine the future of liberalism and democracy; it will also set a precedent for economic relations between the West and China, as the two diverge into rival spheres of influence and power.

‘This deeply researched book shows how great power competition in the digital age calls into question established concepts of strategic stability with grave implications for liberal democracies.’ — Nigel Inkster, author of The Great Decoupling: China, America and the Struggle for Technological Supremacy Examines how cyber espionage became an instrument of statecraft, shaped by the entanglements between states, hackers and tech companies that drive global instability. Even the most elite hackers use common technologies to steal state secrets, which help intelligence agencies to catch them. Are these hackers simply reckless, or do their operations reveal something deeper about their nation-state patrons?Over a globally interconnected Internet, nations must constantly toe the delicate line of maintaining stability--developing shared tech protocols that they themselves must also break, in order to spy. This is the paradox at the heart of cyber espionage: states need to cooperate if they are to compete. As the US and China vie for strategic advantage through a new form of statecraft in cyber space, an intensifying cat-and-mouse game makes cyber security more difficult, more expensive and more unpredictable for us all.Full Stack Spies examines the dynamic, interdependent relationships that hackers, cyber defenders, tech giants and nation states forge, leverage and exploit to amass cyber power against a wide range of targets in geopolitics, global trade and finance, the armed forces, and critical infrastructure. But this jostling for cyber dominance makes spying online harder--and, more crucially, undermines long-term trust in cyber space, destabilising the foundations of digital societies.The volatile China-US relationship remains key to global futures A former FT cyber chief, Ahana Datta Fasel can distil complex ideas for general readers Hacking stories are dominating news cycles, and this book offers clarity

A fresh portrait of Greece's forgotten Near Eastern identity, with old cultural, political and economic ties reforming in today's turbulent world.‘Part travelogue, part geopolitical survey, this entertaining book looks at how the country's Near Eastern connections are being knitted back together.’ ― Peter Frankopan, Financial Times ‘A great read.’ ― Tim Judah, The Economist Caught between wars raging in both Eastern Europe and the Middle East, Greece is an island of relative stability. Popularly considered the cradle of Western civilisation, this is a Christian Orthodox state on the edge of the Islamic world. And, after a half-century of integration into NATO and the EU, Greece is now reabsorbing into the Near East, as the West fractures and new Middle Eastern powers rise. The country’s importance as a cultural and geopolitical hybrid is growing.Travelling through the region, Sean Mathews explores at ground level the tectonic shifts reshaping Europe and the Middle East. He meets the last Greek merchants in Cairo, and hears from Istanbul’s remaining Greeks about Turkey’s break with the West. In Jerusalem, he discovers a budding alliance between Greece and Israel; and in a faded Ottoman port, he encounters football hooligans loyal to a Russian oligarch.This bold reappraisal of Greece as a Near Eastern nation uncovers its Byzantine and Ottoman past as a key to survival in today’s chaotic, shrinking world.Greece is a unique country to see the collapse of the post WWII order: it might be the last country in Europe where American power dies, not because it belongs to NATO, but because it belongs to the wider Middle East.Groundbreaking analysis of Israel’s overlooked alliance with Greece, which is reshaping the Mediterranean region, and of Turkish-aligned Greeks.An easy-to-read examination of the Middle East and Balkans made engaging through travel writing anecdotes that avoid academic jargon.

This is an analytical history of the role Tigrinya-speakers have played and are still playing in the history of Ethiopia and Eritrea, from Tigray's very ancient incipience to the origins of today's tragically fratricidal war. Drawing from his huge corpus of publications on the Horn of Africa, Haggai Erlich sheds new light on major turning-points, as well as patterns of continuity. His history revolves around one key question: what was 'the mysterious magnetism' that held (and still holds) Ethiopia together? Erlich argues that there is an 'Amhara thesis' competing with a 'Tigrayan thesis' on what Ethiopia's political and administrative system should be, and that the region's history has often rotated around the axis of struggle between these two visions. The Tigrayans, though a minority, have had their periods of domination, the last ending in 2018. In between these eras, Tigrayans have been marginalised and weakened, including as the victims of their own internal rivalries, which culminated in the deep and bitter split between 'core' Tigrayans and Tigrayan Eritreans. In the context of today's war, Erlich's insightful book offers an extremely timely introduction to Tigrayan history, and an indispensable key to understanding the roots of Ethiopia's present crisis.

The book to understand ‘Serbia's Iron Lady’ Biljana Plavšić ‘Compelling… a far-reaching, powerful and personal account… poses fundamental questions about the nature of justice and the effectiveness of international courts.’ — Philippe Sands, The ObserverA tale of violent terror and chilling unrepentance, from the only woman convicted of crimes against humanity in the Bosnian War.Olivera Simić has written a book that refuses the comfortable distance most of us want when studying people who order ethnic cleansing. She sat across from a woman in her nineties, unrepentant and free, and let her speak. Simić lets the reader hear the cadence of her sentences, the justifications that still feel rational to her, the small, ordinary moments that somehow coexisted with mass murder. That is something rare. That is the willingness to hold complexity so tightly it bruises. Most books about war criminals are written from the outside looking in. Simić’s is written from the chair opposite the only woman convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. She stayed with her long enough to observe the inner architecture of her thinking.Biljana Plavšić remains the only woman ex-president and high-ranking politician in history convicted of crimes against humanity before international tribunals. Simić never tries to solve the mystery of how a biologist becomes a nationalist, then a convict, then a free woman again. She just presents the mystery in full, without varnish, and trusts the reader to sit in the discomfort. That takes courage. Seven years of interviews, archival documents, and court files. The ethics of bringing such a story to life are mind-boggling since Plavšić was not an outlier. She was a biologist, an academic, a dean of a university and then a political leader who participated in and justified ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian war. That matters. Because it disrupts the convenient narrative that violence at this scale is only carried by men, or only by those outside systems of knowledge.Simić’s work offers the proximity—time spent with someone who embodied these contradictions. And that proximity matters, because it allows us to examine not just guilt and responsibility, but how a human being comes to align with systems capable of tearing communities and entire countries apart beyond repair.How did an internationally recognised scientist end up running a vengeful ethno- nationalist movement that killed tens of thousands?As debates about genocide and culpability continue to dominate headlines, this makes for a useful case studyPlavšić was the Tribunal’s oldest convicted defendant as well as the only woman

A leading Central European journalist investigates how political and intellectual elites in Europe’s democracies underestimate and enable the continent’s authoritarians—from the Cold War onwards. ‘Putin has obviously deceived everyone.’ These were the words of Manuela Schwesig, First Minister of the German state Mecklenburg- Western Pomerania, after the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. She was trying to explain why her federal government had been so closely implicated in Russia’s controversial completion of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Why have other German, Austrian and European politicians and commentators so often got it so very wrong in their assessments of Moscow policy? Why has the EU been so slow to recognise the danger posed to its liberal values by nationalist autocrats such as Viktor Orbán of Hungary? And why have lessons from past blunders in Western policy—particularly in the Balkans—and the example of German Ostpolitik gone ignored, until it was too late? Paul Lendvai, a veteran reporter on the continent’s centre and east, exposes the role of double standards embraced, blind eyes turned and human and political weakness overlooked in policies of appeasement towards Europe’s authoritarian regimes, past and present. Combining analysis of new developments with decades of personal experience as a correspondent, he provides fascinating political profiles in deceit, sketching both the victims and the perpetrators of political fraud in Central and Eastern Europe.

Reporter Chang Frick grew up dark-haired in a nation of blonds. Ostracised as a child, in adulthood he set out to expose the hypocrisy of Swedish society. When he revealed the cover-up of mass sexual assaults on teen girls at a 2015 music festival, he provoked a chain reaction that rattled the nation. Sweden’s elites shirked responsibility and rushed to discredit him. Although Sweden boasts the world’s oldest free press, its history of homogeneity and social engineering has created a culture where few dare dissent from consensus, those who do are driven to extremes, and there is no place for outsiders—even those who conform. In this groundbreaking book, investigative journalist Kajsa Norman turns her fearless gaze on the oppressive forces at the heart of Sweden's 'model democracy'. Weaving the history of its social politics with the stories of Frick and other outcasts, Norman exposes the darkness in the Swedish soul.

This book begins in 1820 with the Portuguese attempt to create a third, African, empire after the virtual loss of Asia and America. In the nineteenth century the most valuable resource extracted from Angola was agricultural labour, first as privately owned slaves and later as conscript workers. The colony was managed by a few marine officers, by several hundred white political convicts, and by a couple of thousand black Angolans who had adopted Portuguese language and culture. The hub was the harbour city of Luanda which grew in the twentieth century to be a dynamic metropolis of several million people. The export of labour was gradually replaced when an agrarian revolution enabled white Portuguese immigrants to drive black Angolan labourers to produce sugar-cane, cotton, maize and above all coffee. During the twentieth century this wealth was supplemented by Congo copper, by gem-quality diamonds, and by off-shore oil. Although much of the countryside retained its dollar-a-day peasant economy, new wealth generated conflict which pitted white against black, north against south, coast against highland, American allies against Russian allies.The generation of warfare finally ended in 2002 when national reconstruction could begin on Portuguese colonial foundations.

A Foreign Affairs 'Book of the Year' and an Independent 'Book of the Month' ‘Revelatory . . . There is much blood on the carpet.’ — The Observer ‘There is so much noir here it would have provided John le Carré with rich material for a lengthy second career, had he lived. … compulsive, quite literally, unputdownable.’ — The Irish TimesUpdated paperback edition includes new material on the papacy of Pope Leo XIV.‘Officially’ the Vatican has no espionage service; but does no one carry out intelligence operations on its behalf? During the Second World War and Cold War, Rome was teeming with spies. A band of undercover monsignors and priests hunted for Vatican ‘moles’, led clandestine diplomacy, investigated assassinations of priests and other scandals threatening the Church, and conducted high-risk missions behind the Iron Curtain.Drawing on freshly released archives of foreign services that worked with or against the Holy See, Vatican Spies reveals eighty years of shadow wars and dirty tricks. These include infiltrating Russian-speaking priests into the Soviet Union; secret negotiations between John XXIII and Khrushchev; the future Paul VI’s close relationship with the CIA; the Vatican’s infiltration by Eastern Bloc intelligence; the battles between the Jesuits and Opus Dei; and the secret bank funds channelled first to fight communism in South America, then to support Solidarity in Poland.This entertaining book journeys right to the present, uncovering startling machinations under Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV.For anyone who enjoyed Conclave, this is an astonishing history of the priests and missionaries whose ‘special ops’ serve the Holy See and 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide.Explores the Vatican’s unofficial espionage service and its instrumental role on the world stage during the Second World War and the Cold War in particular. Taps into new international intelligence archives to investigate the Vatican’s longstanding global connections.

A disturbing portrait of the fascist youth movements warping Russian society and politics.How did Vladimir Putin win Russians’ support for his genocidal war in Ukraine and why are so many of them willing to embrace fascism? This vivid, bottom-up narrative reveals the dark realities of youth fascism in Russia—and the darker future awaiting the country if that hold cannot be broken.Wartime Russia is drowning in fascist symbols. Zealous patriots attack journalists, opposition activists, and anyone suspected of betraying the motherland. Hordes of online trolls and sleek videos of angry young men urge citizens to join the cause. State television terrifies viewers with false tales of anti-Russian conspiracies and genocidal yearnings. Child soldiers proudly parade across Red Square. This is Russia in the 2020s: a land of performative rage and nationalist untruth, where pretence and broken promises are a way of life, and an apocalyptic mindset is seizing tomorrow’s Russians.As compelling as it is chilling, Z Generation shows how Russia has ended up here, and where its young people may be headed: a fascist generation more violent and ideological than anything the country has seen before.

Selected as a ‘Book of the Year’ by BBC History MagazineThe Truth About Empire comes from expert historians who believe that the truth, as far as we can pinpoint it, matters; that our decades of painstaking research make us worth listening to; and that our authority as leading professionals should count for something in today’s polarised debates over Britain’s imperial past.In the culture wars, the public’s understanding of colonial history is continually distorted by wilful caricatures. With their fight to highlight Empire’s horrors, communities whose voices once went unheard have alienated many who would prefer a celebratory national history. The backlash, orchestrated by elements of the media, has produced a concerted denial of British imperial racism and violence—a disinformation campaign sharing both tactics and motivations with those around Covid, Brexit and climate change.From Australia and China to India and South Africa, this essay collection is an accessible guide to the British Empire, and a shield against the assault on historical truth. The disturbing stories told in these pages, of Empire’s culture, politics and economics, show why professional research matters, when deciding what can and cannot be known about Britain’s colonial past.Sharp, authoritative essays on the dark realities of Empire and the true historian’s importance for democracy, amid history’s appropriation by apologists, racists and culture warriors.A focus on historical objectivity in the face of recent disinformation regarding Britain’s imperial past.An accessible guide to the British Empire with a foreword Sathnam Sanghera

In September 2022, at a grandiose ceremony in the Kremlin, President Putin announced the incorporation into the Russian Federation of four provinces in southern and eastern Ukraine--the most significant attempted land seizure in Europe since World War II. Although Russia was not in control of large parts of these provinces, its military occupied more than 40,000 square miles of Ukrainian territory.Occupation explains how Russia sought to subjugate these territories through a toxic mix of violence, political influence and economic coercion. Its security forces kidnapped, tortured and killed civilians and officials, seized businesses and properties from Ukrainian owners, erased physical evidence of Ukrainian culture, and subjected the population to a barrage of constant propaganda.More than half of the pre-war population fled, to Europe, Russia or the rest of Ukraine, and most who remained were hostile to the occupiers. Yet Russia found local politicians to front its regime. A few people openly collaborated; most faced uncomfortable choices to survive under Russian rule.In occupied Ukraine, Moscow attempted to create an ersatz 'new Russia', based on fantasy, ideology and violence. This regime was a microcosm of the contemporary Russian Federation, reflecting its deepening militarisation and authoritarianism.

After the 1993 Oslo Accords, a handful of Palestinians were allowed to return to their hometowns in Israel. Fida Jiryis and her family were among them. This beautifully written memoir tells the story of their journey, which is also the story of Palestine, from the Nakba to the present—a seventy-five-year tale of conflict, exodus, occupation, return and search for belonging, seen through the eyes of one writer and her family. Jiryis reveals how her father, Sabri, a PLO leader and advisor to Yasser Arafat, chose exile in 1970 because of his work. Her own childhood in Beirut was shaped by regional tensions, the Lebanese Civil War and the 1982 Israeli invasion, which led to her mother’s death. Thirteen years later, the family made an unexpected return to Fassouta, their village of origin in the Galilee. But Fida, twenty-two years old and full of love for her country, had no idea what she was getting into. Stranger in My Own Land chronicles a desperate, at times surreal, search for a homeland between the Galilee, the West Bank and the diaspora, asking difficult questions about what the right of return would mean for the millions of Palestinians waiting to come ‘home’.

A masterful new biography of North Korea’s despotic founding father and his enduring impact on his country today. A Financial Times Best Summer History Book 2025‘Tertitskiy has marshalled an impressive array of sources in multiple languages to piece together this brisk, credible and highly readable account ... fascinating.’ ― The Telegraph ‘A rare and impressive biographical feat: a chilling portrait of a man who seems almost too bad to be true.' — The Wall Street JournalKim Il-sung was the enigmatic architect of North Korea. His life is an extraordinary tale of improbable success: once a barely educated guerrilla fighter, he rose to lead the nation at the young age of 33. Against all odds, he established a horrifyingly stable dictatorial regime, one that still struggles to provide for its people, yet could obliterate Hollywood, Silicon Valley and much of East Asia in nuclear strikes.Based on extensive new sources in Korean, Russian, Chinese and Japanese, Fyodor Tertitskiy tells the unlikely story of one of the twentieth century's most brutal but little-known dictators, from his early life in Japanese Korea to the lasting repercussions of his autocratic rule today. Tertitskiy showcases Kim's political prowess in gaining autonomy from the USSR; explores how his inept economic policy led to catastrophic famine; and highlights how he implemented a system of hereditary rule, paving the way for today's 'Supreme Leader', Kim Jong-un, to assume power and continue his grandfather's vision.KAccidental Tyrant serves as a stark cautionary tale, underscoring that the triumph of liberty is never guaranteed. Met with insufficient resistance, even the most unlikely leader can build a regime of repression and privation that long outlives its founder.A cautionary tale highlighting that liberty is never guaranteed and that the most unlikely leader can build a dictatorial regimeIlluminates the nature of the current North Korean regimeDraws on extensive new sources in Korean, Chinese, Russian and Japanese

Islam has been one of the most powerful religious, social, and political forces in history. Over the last 1400 years, from origins in Arabia, a succession of Muslim polities and later empires expanded to control territories and peoples that ultimately stretched from southern France, to East Africa and South East Asia. Yet many of the contributions of Muslim thinkers, scientists, and theologians, not to mention rulers, statesmen and soldiers, have been occluded. This book rescues from oblivion and neglect some of these personalities and institutions while offering the reader a new narrative of this lost Islamic history. The Umayyads, Abbasids, and Ottomans feature in the story, as do Muslim Spain, the savannah kingdoms of West Africa and the Mughal Empire, along with the later European colonisation of Muslim lands and the development of modern nation-states in the Muslim world. Throughout, the impact of Islamic belief on scientific advancement, social structures, and cultural development is given due prominence, and the text is complemented by portraits of key personalities, inventions and little known historical nuggets.The history of Islam and of the world's Muslims brings together diverse peoples, geographies, and states, all interwoven into one narrative that begins with Muhammad and continues to this day.

In 1940s India, revolutionary and nationalistic feeling surged against colonial subjecthood and imperial war. Two-and-a-half million men from undivided India served the British during the Second World War, while 3 million civilians were killed by the war-induced Bengal Famine, and Indian National Army soldiers fought against the British for Indian independence. This captivating new history shines a spotlight on emotions as a way of unearthing these troubled and contested experiences, exposing the personal as political. Diya Gupta draws upon photographs, letters, memoirs, novels, poetry and philosophical essays, in both English and Bengali languages, to weave a compelling tapestry of emotions felt by Indians in service and at home during the war. She brings to life an unknown sepoy in the Middle East yearning for home, and anti- fascist activist Tara Ali Baig; a disillusioned doctor on the Burma frontline, and Sukanta Bhattacharya's modernist poetry of hunger; Mulk Raj Anand's revolutionary home front, and Rabindranath Tagore's critique of civilisation. This vivid book recovers a truly global history of the Second World War, revealing the crucial importance of personal documentation in challenging a traditional focus on the wartime experiences of European populations. Seen through ordinary Indian eyes, this was not the 'good' war.