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John Zubrzycki

'A masterpiece of compression... conveys 5,000 years of history with flair and authority' JOHN KEAY
From the tantalising traces of ancient Harappan civilisation to the emerging superpower of today, here is India's story in all its contradictions, drama and splendour.

In
The Shortest History of India, John Zubrzycki distils five millennia of gods and kings, conquerors and colonisers into an epic tale teeming with personalities both legendary and largely unknown outside India. Gautama Buddha, Alexander the Great and Mahatma Gandhi share the stage with Candragupta ('India's Julius Caesar'), Nizam Saqqa, the water-carrier who became king for a day, and Raziyya, the first Muslim woman to rule in the subcontinent.

The later chapters reveal a modern India riven by contrasts: the brutal reality of partition and the fantasies of Bollywood, booming IT businesses and expanding slums. In conclusion, Zubrzycki asks whether internal challenges - from religious tensions to an increasingly undemocratic regime - might still thwart India's rise to wealth and power.

Old Street Publishing

Shortest Histories

The Shortest History of India

David Baker

'Humorous and accessible but never trivial... full of entertainment and insight' SUSAN QUILLIAM, co-author of The Joy of Sex

How did sex begin?

How did it evolve to be so varied in humans?

What might sex look like in the future?
The Shortest History of Sex traces the long evolution of human sexuality from the first microscopic couplings two billion years ago to today's somewhat baffling array of passions, impulses and fetishes.

From the basic underlying chemistry to the tortuous complexities of the 21st-century human, David Baker lifts the lid on one of nature's primary forces. This is an erudite and entertaining book that tackles large questions with humour and insight – an essential guide for the curious reader.

The Shortest History of Sex: Two Billion Years of Procreation and Recreation

Andrew Leigh

'If you read just one book about economics, make it Andrew Leigh's clear, insightful, remarkable - and short - work'
Claudia Goldin, Winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics
The Shortest History of Economics unearths the hidden economic forces behind war, innovation and social transformation, tracing how capitalism and the market system emerged.
From the emergence of agriculture to the war in Ukraine, Andrew Leigh weaves a fascinating narrative punctuated by expert insights into major moments in human history – why the invention of the plough led to gender inequality, how certain diseases determined the patterns of colonialism, and even how New York's robber barons inspired the board game Monopoly.
Always accessible, expertly written and highly illuminating, The Shortest History of Economics is a perfect introduction to the subject.

The Shortest History of Economics

Ross King

'King's supreme ability is to imagine himself into the past. The scope of his knowledge is staggering' JOHN CAREY, SUNDAY TIMES

From Michelangelo to Mussolini, Nero to Meloni, Galileo to Garibaldi, here is the sparkling story of the world's most influential peninsula.

The calendar, the university, the piano; the Vespa, the pistol and the pizzeria… It is easy to assume that inventions like these could only come from somewhere sure of its place in the world. Yet these pages reveal a land rife with uncertainty even as its influence spread.

From the rise of the Roman Republic to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, from the glories of Renaissance Florence to the long struggle for unification, from Europe's first operas to the world's first ghettos, Ross King nimbly charts the checkered course of Italian history. In the last hundred years, film, fashion and Fiat – once bigger than Volkswagen – have emerged from the horrors of fascism and world war.

The Shortest History of Italy is a majestic sweep across three millennia of history that not only shaped Europe but the wider world.