What we learn when an anthropologist and a historian talk about food.From the origins of agriculture to contemporary debates over culinary authenticity, Ways of Eating introduces readers to world food history and food anthropology. Through engaging...

Despite the social sciences' growing fascination with tattooing--and the immense popularity of tattoos themselves--the practice has not left much of a historical record. And, until very recently, there was no good context for writing a serious history of...

First published in 1978, this book rapidly established itself as a classic of modern Marxism. Cohen's masterful application of advanced philosophical techniques in an uncompromising defense of historical materialism commanded widespread admiration. In...

An entrancing tale of piracy colored with gold, treachery and double-dealing (Portland Press Herald), Pulitzer Prize-finalist Colin Woodward's The Republic of Pirates is the historical biography of the exploits of infamous Caribbean buccaneers.In the...

A brilliant history of the land battles in the Pacific theater of World War II, with stirring personal accounts of the horrifying struggle between the Japanese and Allied forces.The horrors of WWII in the South Pacific extended far beyond the detonation...

"Was the bombing offensive [against civilians in Germany and Japan] a crime against humanity," writes A. C. Grayling, "or was it justified by the necessities of war? These questions mark one of the great remaining controversies of the Second World War."...

"Enthralling....If so compact a book can be magisterial, [this] is it.―Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World... "A smart, literate survey of human life from paleolithic times until 9/11."―Edward Rothstein, The New York Times Why has human history...

Eric Hobsbawm's brilliant enquiry into the question of nationalism won further acclaim for his 'colossal stature ... his incontrovertible excellence as an historian, and his authoritative and highly readable prose'. Recent events in Eastern Europe and...

A wide-ranging journey through the history of borders and an exploration of their role in shaping our world today.Since the earliest known marker denoting the edge of one land and the beginning of the next―a stone column inscribed with Sumerian...

A fascinating and surprising history of the world told through the lines people have drawn on mapsPeople have been drawing lines on maps for as long as there have been maps to draw on. Sometimes rooted in physical geography, sometimes entirely arbitrary,...

“[A]n incisive and captivating reassessment of prehistory . . . In lucid prose, Geroulanos unspools an enthralling and detailed history of the development of modern natural science. It’s a must-read.” ―Publishers Weekly, starred review“An astute,...

A leading historian of World War II sheds new light on the purposes and impact of the U.S. incendiary and atomic bombing of Japan's cities in 1945.

A globe-trotting work of relentless investigative reporting, Waste Wars is the first major book to expose the catastrophic reality of the multi-billion-dollar global garbage trade.Around the world, landfills, ports, and slums are overflowing with trash...

A magnificent work of original research that unravels history through textiles and cloth—how we make it, use it, and what it means to us.A New York Times Book Review Editor's ChoiceHow is a handmade fabric helping save an ancient forest?Why is a famous...

A brilliant, paradigm-shifting global history of how humanity has reshaped the planet, and the planet has shaped human history, over the last 500 years.Ever since innovations in agriculture, transportation, and medicine brought great freedom to vast...

Exploring literary representations of mass violence, Bruce Robbins traces the emergence of a cosmopolitan recognition of atrocity.Mass violence did not always have a name. Like conquest, what we think of now as atrocities have not always invited...