Quercus

People often complain that in history lessons at school they were taught just a few topics – the Romans, the Tudors, the Nazis – and how they have no idea at all...

Take a journey through the prehistoric world and trace the evolution of the most astonishing creatures ever to have walked the earth. Over 170 superbly detailed computer-generated illustrations provide a stunning visual...

The ultimate guide to the most important ideas in art through the ages...

The elite group of women who have ruled as queens or empresses or governed as presidents or prime ministers includes some of the most inflectional and charismatic figures in world history.  Queen,...

At a time of corrosive popular cynicism and profound international unease, the need for clarity over the fundamental concepts of politics has never been greater: the forces of Terrorism and Fundamentalism endanger...

In this, the latest volume in the best selling 50 Ideas series, author Joanne Baker unravels the complexities of the universe for a general readership.From Heliocentrism to dark matter, and from Kepler’s...

The story of the European discovery of the world from 1475 to 1899, told through 120 maps....

Journeys to sacred places or shrines undertaken as acts of religious veneration or penance have been a feature of religious observance from the earliest times.  Philip Carr-Gomm tells the stories of 50...

The magnificent vault of stars emblazoning Earth’s night skies are but an infinitesimal fraction of the hundreds of billions that inhabit our galaxy – and there are at least as many galaxies...

The stories of 50 of the most evil tyrants in world history are presented here in chronological order, providing an intriguing look at man’s inhumanity to man....

Philip Gooden tells the story of the English language in all its richness and variety. From the intriguing origins and changing definitions of common words such as "OK", "beserk", "curfew", "cabal" and...

Beautifully illustrated with 100 paintings, photographs and charts, this book contains the fascinating and tragic stories behind the 20 most famous and significant shipwrecks in history...

Egypt, due to its geographical isolation, developed a unique and self-contained culture whose religion, customs, art, architecture and social structures changed little over 3000 years.   Thanks to its dry climate a wealth...

“Movie Makers” traces the evolution of cinema from the silent era to the present through lives and works of the greatest directors. ...

This is an anthology of many voices:  dictators and democrats, liberals and conservatives, nationalists and internationalists, soldiers and peacemakers, statesmen and entrepreneurs.   Each speech is accompanied by a biography of the speech,...

An introduction to the works of the 50 greatest poets of our time....

The defining conflicts of world history from the ancient Greeks to the war on terror....

“Wonders of the Ancient World” presents 40 of the most extraordinary feats of human engineering and design created between the dawn of human civilization and the onset of the medieval period.  Each...

Have you ever wondered what the difference is between a MUD and an API? Don’t know your OCR from your PPC? Not quite clear on crowd-sourcing and culture jamming? Then this book...

A terrific array of stories on a wide range of historical figures from the well known (including Judas, Anne Boleyn, Benedict Arnold and Mata Hari) to the obscure. These tales are thoroughly researched...

"Assassins" tells the darkly sensational story of twenty centuries of political murder, from the Roman era to the present. It includes accounts of many of the most infamous assassinations in history, from...

Full of passion, poetry, and conviction this anthology is a celebration of 50 speeches in Irish History.  Featuring the likes of Michael Collins, John Hume, W.B. Yeats, Eamon de Valeria, Seamus Heaney,...

Humanity has always gazed at the stars with wonder – and through the ages we have tried to understand the mysteries behind what we see.  “The Story of Astronomy” is full of...

With the satellite's all-seeing eye we can follow a thread of gold weaving its way through a mountain range; we can uncover cities swallowed by shifting sands or dense jungle; we can...

Reproducing one of the most advanced satellite surveys of Earth in its entirely, this book explores our planet, explaining the how and when of its mountain ranges, deserts, ice-sheets, volcanoes and oceans....

Not One Step Back tells the dramatic story of history’s great sieges. From the dusty plains of Texas to the great walls of Constantinople, and the trenches of Vicksburg to the jungles of...

Where “History Was Made” offers a rich selection of dramatic historical events and the locations that saw them happen.  These events often inhabit the land for a long time to come and...

"Call to Arms" recounts more than 50 momentous and stirring speeches from a wide range of conflicts and eras. Complete with biographies of each military leader, the history of why each speech...

Entertaining, readable, and richly informative profiles of 50 prophets, seers and charlatans from all eras of history are gathered together in this book.   As well as telling their life stories the book...

The fourth title in the Quercus Ideas You Really Need to Know series demystifies the management concepts that any budding entrepreneur will want to grasp. The 50 bite-sized topics expound the wisdom...