We use cookies and other data for a number of reasons, such as keeping FT Sites reliable and secure, personalising content and ads, providing social media features and to analyse how our Sites are used.
Add this topic to your myFT Digest for news straight to your inbox
The ‘Lincheng incident’ pitted bandits against a wealthy elite — and is recreated in James Zimmerman’s immersive account
Ian Buruma profiles three figures whose wartime actions remained mired in accusations of treachery — and delusion
Paul Strathern’s lively portraits prove that Italy was not the only part of Europe shaping the modern world
What can we learn from studying thousands of years of humanity’s response to natural disasters?
Two new books explore aspects of Ukraine’s troubled 20th-century history
By foregrounding humanity’s impact on nature and climate, Peter Frankopan reframes what matters most in the history of our planet
In her extraordinary memoir, Chilean writer Nona Fernández combines astronomy and neuroscience with a refusal to forget
With conflict over Ireland, Scotland and Europe, monarchy and governance, the 17th century had uneasy parallels with today
Rich with detail, this gripping book charts the extraordinary bravery and professional barriers faced by women working in intelligence
History contains some notable examples of progeny with more extreme politics than their parents or grandparents
A case for swashbucklers in Madagascar first discovering the ideals of reason, liberty and toleration
Adam Kuper takes a provocative look at questions of ethnography, ownership and restitution
This courageous account puts the indigenous Americans who came to Europe, most as slaves, at the centre of the story
Tania Branigan’s intimate stories of survivors capture a traumatic decade for many that still informs modern China
Isolationist superpower or still ‘the world’s policeman’? Two books explore the competing impulses in US politics
Swept along by revolutionary forces, the young émigré seeks to realise her dreams of ‘freedom and fantasy’ in 1920s France
An intense and precise novel that explores the changing sexual mores of Victorian society through the eyes of two ethical pioneers
Melvyn Leffler’s new history of the war against Saddam reveals how guilt, fear and hubris led to a fateful military intervention
A riveting account of how secretaries were left behind in the fight for equality in the workplace
James Hall reveals some surprises in his diverting history of these ‘crucibles of creativity’
From Genghis Khan to Caesar, Simon Sebag Montefiore’s entertaining new take on the history of the world is told via some rather troubling relatives
Tony Barber selects his must-read titles
Power, ambition and failure in the story of the ‘first tycoon’, ancient Rome’s richest man
A century after its demise, the effects of the end of empire are still being felt
Two timely books — by Paul Corner and John Foot — argue convincingly that the nation exonerated itself over crimes carried out under the Duce
International Edition