"I have decided to prepare a landing operation against England, and if necessary to carry it" – Adolph Hitler, 16 July 1940. Immediately after the fall of France in June 1940, Hitler ordered his generals to organize the invasion of Britain under a pl...

Nine-and-a-half months after D-Day, 30,000 British troops crossed the Rhine as part of the Allied assault on Germany. Two years earlier, work had already started on a guide to assist them in negotiating everyday life in what then was still enemy terr...

The origins of the game of rugby and the codification of the rules which defined the game have been glorified in numerous legends, some of which are little more than sporting hagiography.Following on from the success of "The Rules of Association Foot...

Hugh Crow was the captain of a slave-trading vessel which made one of the last legal journeys across the Atlantic with its "human cargo". This is a highly engaging, rare, first-hand account written by a staunch defender of the slave trade. Crow depic...

At the height of the debate about the slave trade and its abolition in the 1780s and '90s, each side issued pamphlets in support of its position. This publication reproduces a selection of representative pamphlets encompassing the arguments put forwa...

A beautiful little manuscript in the Bodleian Library, which was purchased for GBP 6 at auction in 1887, was discovered afterwards to belong to none other than Margaret, Queen of Scotland and was, according to her biographer, her favourite book. The...

Nearly 1 million American soldiers passed through Australia between 1942 and 1945 as part of America's strategy to recapture the Philippines and defeat Japan. They encountered a country full of reassuring similarities and strange differences. Here wa...

"The Rule Book of The FA from 1863" is one of the most important books ever published – according to the writer and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg. Drawing on his recently published work, he explains in the Introduction why this book is one of the Twelve B...

All you need is love? Not according to W. H. Collingridge, the author of this essential guide to finding, wooing, and securing a suitable partner. Originally published in 1855, this brisk, no-nonsense handbook still has much to teach lovers and their...

Among the many gifts presented to Queen Elizabeth during her week-long visit to Oxford in the summer of 1566, none is more remarkable than this manuscript history of the University illustrated with exceptionally fine drawings of its buildings. Though...