When the motor car first came to England in the 1890s, it was a luxury item with little practical purpose – drivers couldn't travel very far or very quickly without paved roads or traffic laws. Thus began a transformation that has affected the archit...

<p>The names Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan Massery may not be well known, but the image of them from September 1957 surely is: a black high school girl, dressed in white, walking stoically in front of Little Rock Central High School, and a white...

In far-flung locations around the globe, an unparalleled sequence of international events took place between December 1 and December 12, 1941. In this riveting book, historian Evan Mawdsley explores how the story unfolded. He demonstrates how these d...

Drawing on primary source material and interviews with statisticians and other scientists, "The Theory That Would Not Die" is the riveting account of how a seemingly simple theorem ignited one of the greatest scientific controversies of all time. Bay...

Sakai Hoitsu was one of the most prominent painters of late 18th- and early 19th-century Japan, known for technical bravura, arresting compositions, and striking use of colour. After becoming a Buddhist monk, Hoitsu was able to dedicate himself to pa...

Many of the most familiar sartorial images of the 20th century can be traced to the prestigious college campuses of America. The "Ivy League Look", or "Ivy Style", was once a cutting-edge look that for decades led the evolution of menswear. Far more...

In the opening pages of this irresistible book, William Ian Miller warns, "the general themes... may strike some as glum and grim". Yet humour leavens each page as he confronts old age, its humiliations, and its undeniable hardships. Taking an enti...

When he was twelve, Joe snuck into the field on the edge of town and saw the Town Mayor with his sister Peregrine. This one moment has overwhelmed and transformed his life, becoming the only thing that holds any importance to him. Years later, in jai...

In the 19th century, designers became involved in the public presentation of the past, focusing specifically on the decoration of historical monuments. By exploring ornamental designs and the way they represented the cultural concerns of distant civi...

Who is the mysterious narrator of "Blindly"? Clearly a recluse and a fugitive, but what more of him can we discern? Baffled by the events of his own life, he muses, "When I write, and even now when I think back on it, I hear a kind of buzzing, blathe...