Primitive Technology: the Complete Guide to Making Things in the Wild from Scratch by John Plant

$35.00 AUD

Category: History

Disconnect from digital and reconnect with your inner caveman If there were ever a book to make you switch off the TV, unplug the gaming console and reconnect with nature, Primitive Technology is it. It will teach you the everyday skills that both the expert and the novice will need to craft resources f rom scratch from your natural surroundings and truly experience the wilderness. For the first time, John Plant imparts his much sought-after knowledge to show us the fundamental skills needed to build a shelter, from lighting a fire and creating an axe head to crafting a spear and making a kiln. Using step-by-step instructions and practical illustrations, this is a must-have book for anyone who wants to learn a new skill, get outdoors and reconnect with nature like never before. ...Show more

Nothing New: A History of Second-Hand by Robyn Annear

$32.99 AUD

Category: History

'Given the way we live now,' writes Robyn Annear, 'it would be easy to suppose that newness has always been venerated.' But as this wonderfully entertaining short history makes clear, modern consumerism is an aberration. Mostly, everyday objects-from cast-off cookware to clothing worn down to rags-have enjoyed long lives and the appreciation of serial owners. Nothing New is itself an emporium- a treasure store of anecdotes and little-known facts that will intrigue and enlighten the devoted bargain-hunter and the dilettante browser alike. ...Show more

1956: The Year Australia Welcomed the World by Nick Richardson

$35.00 AUD

Category: History

An engrossing account of a pivotal year in Australia's history. This book debunks one of the hardiest cliches in Australian history- that the 1950s was a dull decade, when the nation seemed only interested in a quiet life, a cup of tea, and a weekend drive. The truth is that, by the time the '60s came around, Australia was already expanding its outlook - politically, economically, and culturally - and central to this were the events of 1956. This was the year when Melbourne hosted the Summer Olympics, the first edition of the Games to be held outside Europe and North America. It also heralded the arrival of television in Australia. In this year, Prime Minister Robert Menzies grappled with world politics, when he opened the country's doors to refugees from the Hungarian uprising, allowed British nuclear tests at Maralinga, and tried to resolve the greatest diplomatic episode of the decade- the Suez Crisis. In these ways and more, the world came to Australia's doorstep in 1956, challenging rusted-on habits and indelibly shifting the nation's perception of itself. Nick Richardson peels back the layers to reveal Australia at a critical moment in time. He brilliantly recreates the broader events surrounding the Melbourne Olympics at the end of 1956, as well as the dramas of the Games themselves. Throughout, he also follows a range of men and women who were touched by this transformation, to illuminate the personal consequences of being part of Australia's pivotal year. ...Show more

Europe: The First 100 Million Years by Tim Flannery

$24.99 AUD

Category: History

It is hard to overstate just how unusual Europe was towards the end of the age of the dinosaurs. It was a dynamic island arc whose individual landmasses were made up of diverse geological types, including ancient continental fragments, raised segments of oceanic crust, and land newly minted by volcanic activity. Yet even at this early stage Europe was exerting a disproportionate influence on the world. About 100 million years ago, the interaction of three continents-Asia, North America and Africa-formed the tropical island archipelago that would become the Europe of today, a place of exceptional diversity, rapid change and high energy. Europe- The First 100 Million Yearsis full of surprises. Over the millennia Europe has received countless immigrant species and transformed them. It is where the first coral reefs formed. It was once home to some of the world's largest elephants. And it played a vital role in the evolution of our own species. When the first modern humans arrived in Europe 40,000 years ago, they began to exert an astonishing influence on the continent's flora and fauna, and now, Europeans lead the way in wildlife restoration-there are more wolves in Europe today than in the USA. This enthralling ecological history is more than the story of Europe and the Europeans, it will change our understanding of life itself. ...Show more

Shakespeare's Library: Unlocking the Greatest Mystery in Literature by Stuart Kells

$34.99 AUD

Category: History

From acclaimed author and ardent bibliophile Stuart Kells comes an exploration of the quest to find the personal library of the world's greatest writer Millions of words of scholarship have been expended on the world's most famous author and his work. And yet a critical part of the puzzle, Shakespeare' s library, is a mystery. For four centuries people have searched for it: in mansions, palaces and libraries; in riverbeds, sheep pens and partridge coops; and in the corridors of the mind. Yet no trace of the bard's manuscripts, books or letters has ever been found. The search for Shakespeare's library is much more than a treasure hunt. Knowing what the Bard read informs our reading of his work, and it offers insight into the mythos of Shakespeare and the debate around authorship. The library's fate has profound implications for literature, for national and cultural identity, and for the global Shakespeare industry. It bears on fundamental principles of art, identity, history, meaning and truth. Unfolding the search like the mystery story that it is, acclaimed author Stuart Kells follows the trail of the hunters, taking us through different conceptions of the library and of the man himself. Entertaining and enlightening,Shakespeare's Library is a captivating exploration of one of literature's most enduring enigmas. ...Show more

Lost Letters from Vienna: Revelations of Exile by Sue Course

$32.95 AUD

Category: History

The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company by William Dalrymple

$32.99 AUD

Category: History

THE TOP 5 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2019 'Dalrymple is a superb historian with a visceral understanding of India - A book of beauty' Gerard DeGroot, The Times In August 1765 the East India Company defeated the young Mughal emperor and forced him to establish in his richest provinces a new administration run by English merchants who collected taxes through means of a ruthless private army what we would now call an act of involuntary privatisation. The East India Company's founding charter authorised it to 'wage war' and it had always used violence to gain its ends. But the creation of this new government marked the moment that the East India Company ceased to be a conventional international trading corporation dealing in silks and spices and became something much more unusual- an aggressive colonial power in the guise of a multinational business. In less than four decades it had trained up a security force of around 200,000 men twice the size of the British army and had subdued an entire subcontinent, conquering first Bengal and finally, in 1803, the Mughal capital of Delhi itself. The Company's reach stretched until almost all of India south of the Himalayas was effectively ruled from a boardroom in London. The Anarchy tells the remarkable story of how one of the world's most magnificent empires disintegrated and came to be replaced by a dangerously unregulated private company, based thousands of miles overseas in one small office, five windows wide, and answerable only to its distant shareholders. In his most ambitious and riveting book to date, William Dalrymple tells the story of the East India Company as it has never been told before, unfolding a timely cautionary tale of the first global corporate power. ...Show more

The Invention of Melbourne: a Baroque Archbishop and a Gothic Architect by Jaynie Anderson; Max Vodola; Shane Carmody

$54.99 AUD

Category: History

The Invention of Melbourne defines the relationship between an architect of genius, William Wardell, and the first Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, James Goold, an Irishman educated in Risorgimento, Italy. Their partnership produced St Patrick's, the largest cathedral of the 19th century anywhere in th e world, and some thirteen churches, decorated with hundreds of Baroque paintings. These ambitious policies coincided with the Gold Rush, which contributed financially to their success. The contribution made by Wardell and Goold to the built environment of Melbourne remains significant. Together, they actively and creatively shaped the city that became a major international metropolis. ...Show more

The Aeronauts: Travels in the Air by James Glaisher

$24.99 AUD

Category: History

In 1862, ambitious scientist James Glaisher set out to do the impossible: ascend higher into the skies than ever before. A pioneer of weather forecasting and of photography, he wanted to take ground-breaking research measurements from different altitudes. Before aeroplanes, the only unpredictable availa ble method of air transportation was the hot air balloon. This is his memoir, detailing death-defying air ballon journeys in his own words. Soon to be a movie starring Eddie Redmayne as Glaisher. ...Show more

The Two Popes by Anthony McCarten

$22.99 AUD

Category: History

On 28 February 2013, a 600-year-old tradition was shattered- Pope Benedict XVI made a startling announcement. He would resign.This story begins with the death of John Paul, through Benedict's election and reign - taking in the controversies that blighted the world's largest church - to his subsequent an d shocking resignation. We see white smoke from the Sistine Chapel and a reluctant successor who breaks with tradition at once, declaring, I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner.Francis returns inside, invites the cardinals to join him, and serves them ice-cream.From the prize-winning screenwriter of The Theory of Everythingand Darkest Hour, The Popeis a poignant and often funny tale of an odd couple, of two very different men whose destinies converge and profoundly influence each other. What issues occupy the two men as they walk and talk in the Vatican gardens together, or later, when they share a light dinner, accompanied by Benedict's favorite drink, Fanta? This is both a biography of two popes and a story of the grace and extra wisdom that comes if a sinner can put their sins behind them. ...Show more

Japan Story: In Search of a Nation, 1850 to the Present by Christopher Harding

$24.99 AUD

Category: History

Japan Story is a fascinating, surprising account of Japan's culture, from the 'opening up' of the country in the mid 19th century to the present, through the eyes of people who always had their doubts about modernity - who greeted it not with the confidence and grasping ambition of Japan's familiar mode rnizers and nationalists, but with resistance, conflict, distress. We encounter writers of dramas, ghost stories and crime novels where modernity itself is the tragedy, the ghoul and the bad guy; surrealist and avant-garde artists sketching their escape; rebel kamikaze pilots and the put-upon urban poor; hypnotists and gangsters; men in desperate search of the eternal feminine and feminists in search of something more than state-sanctioned subservience; Buddhists without morals; Marxist terror groups; couches full to bursting with the psychological fall-out of breakneck modernization. These people all sprang from the soil of modern Japan, but their personalities and projects failed to fit. They were 'dark blossoms'- both East-West hybrids and home-grown varieties that wreathed, probed and sometimes penetrated the new masonry and mortar of mainstream Japan. ...Show more

Destined for War by Allison Graham

$24.99 AUD

Category: History

China and the United States are heading toward a war neither wants. The reason is Thucydides' Trap, a deadly pattern of structural stress that results when a rising power challenges a ruling one. This phenomenon is as old as history itself. About the Peloponnesian War that devastated ancient Greece, th e historian Thucydides explained- 'It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable.' Over the past 500 years, these conditions have occurred sixteen times. War broke out in twelve of them. Today, as an unstoppable China approaches an immovable America, and both Xi Jinping and Donald Trump promise to make their countries 'great again', the seventeenth case looks grim. Unless China is willing to scale back its ambitions or Washington can accept becoming number two in the Pacific, a trade conflict, cyberattack, or accident at sea could soon escalate into all-out war. In Destined for War, the eminent Harvard scholar Graham Allison explains why Thucydides' Trap is the best lens for understanding U.S.-China relations in the twenty-first century. Through uncanny historical parallels and war scenarios, he shows how close we are to the unthinkable. Yet, stressing that war is not inevitable, Allison also reveals how clashing powers have kept the peace in the past - and what painful steps the United States and China must take to avoid disaster today. ...Show more