Item category 1: Countries: History & Geography

Churchill's Abandoned Prisoners tells the previously suppressed story of fifteen British prisoners captured during the Russian civil war. The Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 seriously compromised the Allied war effort. That threat, rather than an ideological wish to defeat the Bolsheviks, was the dr...

In the bleak moments after defeat on mainland Europe in winter 1939, Winston Churchill knew that Britain had to strike back hard. So Britain's wartime leader called for the lightning development of a completely new kind of warfare, recruiting a band of eccentric free-thinking warriors to become t...

This is real Tehran: a city that is hidden from view and rarely written about, where survival depends on an intricate network of lies and subterfuge. It is a place where mullahs visit prostitutes, drug kingpins run crystal meth kitchens, surgeons restore girls' virginity and homemade porn is uplo...

The American companion to A History of the World in 100 Objects: A fresh, visual perspective on the Civil War. From a soldier's diary with the pencil still attached to John Brown's pike, the Emancipation Proclamation, a Confederate Palmetto flag, and the leaves from Abraham Lincoln's bier, here i...

AMERICAN HISTORY: C 1800 TO C 1900. "These photos are no longer just dusty old pictures, but rather have become very real moments in time from our collective past, frozen forever in color."--John C. Guntzelman The Civil War comes alive as never before in this extraordinary collection of colorized...

Cleopatra: lover, seductress, and Egypt's greatest queen. A woman more myth than history, immortalized in poetry, drama, music, art, and film. She captivated Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, the two greatest Romans of the day, and died in a blaze of glory, with an asp clasped to her breast - or so ...

This is a stunning visual history of the greatest conflict in world history. The Second World War is the largest event in the history of mankind: no populated continent was untouched by its operations and the political structure of the post-war world has been largely determined by its outcome. Th...

AUSTRALASIAN & PACIFIC HISTORY. AUSTRALIAN. The colonial process in South Australia began decades before formal annexation with unregulated interactions between coastal Aboriginal people and European sealers and whalers. Despite catastrophic interventions in the lives of Aboriginal people during ...

This book travels through the history of the whole world, from the emergence of hominids millions of years ago, up to the present day, in a huge compilation of facts, features and images. The first section records significant world events, presented as chronologically listed entries, running down...

WWI and ANZAC Day. This book begins by looking at the origins of World War I and then chronicles the war a year at a time. The second half of the book details the history of World War II, from the rise of Hitler and the persecution of the Jewish race to the attacks on Pearl Harbour and the droppi...

The temples of ancient Egypt include the largest and perhaps most impressive religious monuments the world has ever known. Mansions of the gods, models of Egypt and of the universe, focal points of worship, great treasure houses and islands of order in a cosmic sea of chaos―the temples were all t...

Margaret Conrad's history of Canada begins with a challenge to its readers. What is Canada? What makes up this diverse, complex and often contested nation-state? What was its founding moment? And who are its people? Drawing on her many years of experience as a scholar, writer and teacher of Canad...

The human history of Western Australia, as of all Australia, stretches back some 40,000 years. It is often assumed that European colonisation was very recent relative to the rest of Australia, but in fact it was contemporary with the first penal colony in Queensland, and well before the South Aus...

Detailing the development of the prison and its outlying stations, including its dreaded coal mines and providing an account of the changing views to convict rehabilitation, Convict-era Port Arthur focuses in on a number of individuals, telling the story through their eyes. Charles O'Hara Booth, ...

An extraordinary story of how Denmark saved its Jews from the Nazis in World War II. This is a story of ordinary glory, of simple courage and moral fortitude that shines out in midst of the terrible history of the twentieth century.

BRITISH & IRISH HISTORY: C 1700 TO C 1900. Ambitious and talented people flocked to court in search of power and prestige, but Kensington Palace was also a gilded cage. While its inhabitants were cocooned in comfort and splendour, successful courtiers had level heads and cold hearts; their secret...

A fascinating exploration of Elizabeth II's early years as Princess and Queen, complete with extensive research, additional material and beautifully reproduced photographs. 'The things which I have here before promised, I will perform and keep. So help me God.' Elizabeth Mountbatten never expecte...

An action-packed and powerful new narrative of the Battle of Okinawa - one of the greatest battles to take place across air, land and sea, and one of the most extraordinary, unusual episodes of the Second World War. For the ferocity of the fighting, the loss of life on both sides, and the pivotal...

WORLD HISTORY: C 500 TO C 1500. The Crusades: A History is the definitive account of a key topic in medieval and religious history. Jonathan Riley-Smith, a world authority on the subject, explores the organisation of a crusade, the experience of crusading and the crusaders themselves, producing a...

Subject: The Crying Years includes a broad range of items from the Library's collections. They are united by text that concisely retells the story of Australia's Great War, year-by-year and them-by-theme, and that highlights some 28 individuals who exemplify aspects of the experiences. The Great ...

The last time Lien saw her parents was in the Hague, where she was collected at the door by a stranger and taken away to be hidden from the Nazis. She was raised by her foster family as one of their own, but a falling out after the war put an end of to their relationship. What was her side of the...

The extraordinary story of how Dutch sailors found Australia and an English pirate almost beat Captain Cook. Rob Mundle is back on the water with another sweeping and powerful account of Australian maritime history. It is the story of 17th-century European mariners - sailors, adventurers and expl...

Darwin is a survivor, you have to give it that. Razed to the ground four times in its short history, it has picked itself up out of the debris to not only rebuild but grow. Darwin has known catastrophes and resurrections; it has endured misconceived projects and birthed visionaries.

For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike - either free and equal, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could be achieved only by sacrificing those original freedoms or, alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. David Graeber and David Weng...

June 6, 1944. The Allies landed in Normandy. Recalling first the build-up to D-Day, this guide goes on to describe the German defenses consulting the assault forces. Then, sector by sector, it gives a lively account of operations on each of the beaches. Each time the units and soldiers involved a...

ASIAN / MIDDLE EASTERN HISTORY: POSTWAR, FROM C 1945 -. In the summer of 1976, Mao lay dying, and China was struck by a great natural disaster. The earthquake that struck Tangshan, a shoddily built mining city, was one of the worst in recorded history, killing half a million people. But the Chine...

People would have known about Australia before they saw it. Smoke billowing above the sea spoke of a land that lay beyond the horizon. A dense cloud of migrating birds may have pointed the way. But the first Australians were voyaging into the unknown.Soon after Billy Griffiths joins his first arc...