Private History

From one of the most beloved authors of our time—more than six million copies of his books have been sold in this country alone—a fascinating excursion into the history behind the place we call home. “Houses aren’t refuges from history. They are where history ends up.” Bill Bryson and...

In Past and Future of Private Property, Bernd Riemann reexamines the history of civilization through a single, provocative lens: the evolution of ownership. Spanning more than 12,000 years of human development, this book traces the extraordinary transformation of property from its origins in the first agricultural settlements to its modern manifestations in intellectual property, financial instruments, digital platforms, and artificial intelligence. Along the way, it reveals a striking pattern. As societies became more complex, property became increasingly abstract, extending its reach from...

For the first time ever, the intimate thoughts and political decisions of Abraham Lincoln’s entire presidency - day by day. In a startlingly innovative format, journalist Stephen A. Wynalda has constructed a painstakingly detailed day-by-day breakdown of president Abraham Lincoln’s decisions in office - including his signing of the Homestead Act on May 20, 1862; his signing of the legislation enacting the first federal income tax on August 5, 1861; and more personal incidents like the day his 11-year-old son, Willie, died.

At daybreak on April 6, 1862, Confederate forces launched a bold suprise attack on the Union army, encamped in southwestern Tennesse. The battle of Shiloh, also known as the battle of Pittsburg Landing, would prove to be the bloodiest battle up until that point in United Staes history. The two day battle would cost a staggering 23,000 casualties. Both sides were stunned at the appalling loss of life. At the time, neither realized that three more years of such bloodshed were still to come.

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK FINALIST FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NONFICTION “Riveting . . . a powerful snapshot of four young Chinese women attempting to assert control over the direction of their lives.” —The New York Times Book Review “As powerfully intimate as it is politically...

POPSKI’S PRIVATE ARMY No. 1 Demolition Squadron: The Untold Story of Britain’s Maverick Special Forces in WWII Before the SAS became legend, another tiny British raiding force was already writing its own savage, improbable war across the desert and into Italy. Its commander was Vladimir Peniakoff — Belgian-born, Russian by blood, Cambridge-educated, desert-hardened, and unlike anyone the British Army knew what to do with. Nicknamed “Popski,” he built a fighting unit so small, so mobile, and so unconventional that it became one of the most remarkable special-forces formations of ...

A history of libraries and the people who built them, from the ancient world to the digital age. “Engaging [and] ambitious” —The Washington Post Famed across the known world, jealously guarded by private collectors, built up over centuries, destroyed in a single day, ornamented with gold...

Steve Coll investigates the largest and most powerful private corporation in the United States, revealing the true extent of its power. ExxonMobil’s annual revenues are larger than the economic activity in the great majority of countries. In many of the countries where it conducts business...

*VANITY FAIR'S BEST BOOKS OF 2025*ONE OF NEW REPUBLIC'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR*KIRKUS' BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2025*ONE OF AV CLUB'S BEST BOOKS OF 2025* "[An] indictment of an industry that has cannily tilted the playing field in its favor. Bad Company details how clichéd abstractions like...

England's Tudor monarchs - Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I - are perhaps the most celebrated and fascinating of all royal families in history. Their love affairs, their political triumphs, and their overturning of the religious order are the subject of countless works of popular scholarship. But for all we know about Henry's quest for male heirs or Elizabeth's purported virginity, the lives of the Tudor monarchs away from the public eye remain largely beyond our grasp, mostly not chronicled by previous historians.

Read by Hugh Fraser TWO BESTSELLING MYSTERIES IN ONE GREAT PACKAGE! CROOKED HOUSE “Writing Crooked House was pure pleasure and I feel justified in my belief that it is one of my best.” --Agatha Christie Described by the queen of mystery herself as one of her favorites of her published work...

A riveting new novel from the Pulitzer Prize–winner that traverses the intimate landscape of one woman’s life, from the 1880s to World War II. Margaret Mayfield is nearly an old maid at twenty-seven in post–Civil War Missouri when she marries Captain Andrew Jackson Jefferson Early. He’s...

Opal Watson, Private Eye introduces an exciting new middle grade mystery series based on the popular original Pinna podcast that feels like a modern-day version of Harriet the Spy. Opal Watson loves being a detective. When her neighbor’s cat goes missing or her grandmother loses her cherished...

Drawing on a huge range of sources - letters, memoirs, conversations - Orlando Figes tells the story of how Russians tried to endure life under Stalin. Those who shaped the political system became, very frequently, its victims. Those who were its victims were frequently quite blameless. The Whisperers recreates the sort of maze in which Russians found themselves, where an unwitting wrong turn could either destroy a family or, perversely, later save it: a society in which everyone spoke in whispers - whether to protect themselves, their families, neighbours or friends - or to inform on them.

When a former client jumps naked from a Boston landmark, Private Investigator Patrick Kenzie wants to know why. Once a perky young woman in love with life, her suicide is the final fall in a spiral of self-destruction. What Kenzie discovers is a sadistic stalker who targeted the woman and...

Bloomsbury presents Death Is Our Business by John Lechner, read by Christopher Ragland. "Extraordinary. . . Essential reading for understanding Russia and modern warfare."—CHRIS MILLER, New York Times bestselling author of Chip War and Putinomics “John Lechner is an amazingly bold reporter...

Elizabeth II is within a few years of becoming the longest-reigning British monarch. A personally quiet, modest and dutiful person, she is far better-informed about the lives of her subjects than they often realize. She has known every Prime Minister since Winston Churchill and every American President since Eisenhower. Yet what of the woman behind the crown?

June 6, 1944: Nineteen boys from Bedford, Virginia -- population just 3,000 in 1944 -- died in the first bloody minutes of D-Day They were part of Company A of the 116th Regiment of the 29th Division, and the first wave of American soldiers to hit the beaches in Normandy. Later in the campaign...

Brought back for one final mission, Paul Brenner is dragged out of a forced retirement to solve a thirty-year-old murder in Vietnam in this thriller from the #1 bestselling author of Plum Island. "Much more than a blood-and-guts thriller... An insightful, moving, and sensitive look at what the...

#1 New York Times Bestseller The inspiration for the Netflix series streaming now! “A revealing look at life inside the White House. . . it’s Downton Abbey for the White House staff.”— The Today Show A remarkable history with elements of both In the President’s Secret Service and The...