Simon Schama

A history of the Jews is possibly the greatest story that can be told. It is the story of mankind - at its most noble and at its most barbaric. From the invention of a single deity and the killing of his embodied Son through to the production of urban modernity, so much of supreme importance for humanity bears the imprint of Jewish thinking and culture.

The British Wars is a compelling chronicle of the changes that transformed every strand and strata of British life, faith and thought from 1603 to 1776. It explores the forces that tore Britain apart during two centuries of dynamic change.

With the devastating effects of COVID-19 still rattling the foundations of our global civilisation, we live in unprecedented times - or so we might think. But pandemics have been a constant presence throughout human history, as humans and disease live side by side. Over the centuries, our ability to react to these sweeping killers has evolved, most notably through the development of vaccines. The story of disease eradication, however, has never been...

This work takes us from the mid-1770s when the country was intoxicated by a great surge of political energy through to the massive advances of technology and industrialisation during the Victoria era, and the burgeoning of the British Empire.