History

Syria: The Desert and The Sown is a masterpiece of travel writing by Gertrude Bell, a pioneering Victorian explorer of Arabia, now available in a stunning Folio edition featuring her original photography.

Spanning 5,000 years from the Bronze Age to the present, India: A History is John Keay’s masterful story of the subcontinent; revised and updated for the Folio Society in this fully illustrated edition.

Simon Ball’s Alamein joins the Folio Society’s fully illustrated Great Battles series: a masterful analysis of Montgomery’s famous Second World War victory against Rommel’s North African forces, and its controversial legacy.

The Folio Society’s three-volume set of the journals of Captain Cook from 1768–1779 is accompanied by a chart of the voyages bound in cloth.

In The Tudor Age, historian Susan Brigden brings to life the world of Henry VIII, Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I in a Folio edition superbly illustrated with colour portraiture.

In The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, top palaeontologist Steve Brusatte brings prehistoric Earth brilliantly to life in an illustrated Folio edition with stunning art from Davide Bonadonna.

Published by Folio in its first-ever illustrated edition, Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism is a ground-breaking study of how the Nazi and Soviet regimes came to power, which speaks directly to our own age.

A Bright Shining Lie is Neil Sheehan’s Pulitzer Prize-winning history of the Vietnam War told through lieutenant colonel John Paul Vann, with a new introduction by George Packer for The Folio Society.

Richly illustrated and newly revised for The Folio Society, In Search of the Dark Ages is Michael Wood’s thrilling account of the age of Beowulf, Sutton Hoo and the Vikings.

Fully illustrated and part of the Folio Society’s Great Battles series, Murray Pittock’s Culloden boldly reassesses the last battle fought on British soil – a clash that ended the Jacobite uprising.

Covering 3,000 years, John Keay’s China: A History chronicles one of the world’s great civilisations, from Confucius to Mao, in an exclusively updated Folio Society edition with lavish colour illustrations and a new introduction by the author.

Thermopylae by Chris Carey is a worthy addition to The Folio Society’s Great Battles series – a masterful account of the Greeks’ celebrated stand against the Persians and its cultural legacy.

A fascinating history of the creatures that populate myths and folklore, John Cherry’s Mythical Beasts is beautifully reimagined as a Folio edition illustrated with archive images and Neil Packer’s striking new motifs and binding design.

Compiled, written and edited by Peter Gillman for The Folio Society, Everest: From Reconnaissance to Summit is an exclusive record of five key expeditions, introduced by Wade Davis and Jan Morris with superlative photography from the Royal Geographical Society archives.

In Dynasty, classical historian Tom Holland chronicles the murderous, decadent reigns of the first five emperors of Rome – a sensational narrative presented in a lavishly illustrated Folio edition.

Andrew Chaikin selects stunning new photography for The Folio Society edition of A Man on the Moon – his commanding history of the Apollo missions, with an introduction by Tom Hanks. 

Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year depicts London in a deadly pandemic. This Folio Society edition, with beautiful woodcuts by Chris Wormell, is introduced by editor-in-chief of The Lancet, Richard Horton.

Spanning 700 years, Creators, Conquerors & Citizens is classical scholar Robin Waterfield’s complete, commanding history of Ancient Greece, augmented with vibrant colour illustrations in this large-format Folio Society edition.

An illustrated Folio Society edition of Christopher Clark’s magisterial history of Prussia from 1600 to the aftermath of the Second World War – winner of awards including the Wolfson History Prize.

A beautiful three-volume Folio edition of Diarmaid MacCulloch’s epic history of Christianity – a landmark of scholarship presented with superb colour images and an exclusive new introduction from historian Neil MacGregor

Waterloo by Alan Forrest launches a major Folio series on history’s greatest battles, providing a vivid account of Napoleon’s defeat by Wellington and its legacy throughout the world.

Featuring a new foreword and maps, Eagle Against the Sun is Ronald H. Spector’s definitive history of World War Two in the Pacific, from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In this newly updated Folio edition, Greil Marcus’s masterful history of rock ‘n’ roll and American culture, Mystery Train, is beautifully illustrated with archive photography and full-colour album covers, introduced by the author.

For the first time, full-colour images illustrate Norman Davies’s magisterial work, Europe: A History, in an elegant three-volume edition from The Folio Society, fully updated by the author.

A landmark narrative of American history, David McCullough’s 1776  is published as a stunning Folio edition with newly researched paintings, sketches and maps from the era, and a striking pictorial slipcase.

The fascinating working lives of ordinary people are revealed in Studs Terkel’s masterful chronicle of American life, published as an illustrated edition for the first time by Folio.

Illustrated with archive photography, Ryszard Kapuściński’s masterpiece of reportage, Shah of Shahs, is a welcome addition to the Folio collection.

The Folio Society edition of The Mark of Command superbly presents celebrated military historian John Keegan’s appraisal of four famous generals: Alexander the Great, Wellington, Ulysses S. Grant and Hitler.

Fearless warrior, religious fanatic, fierce patriot: the familiar story of Joan of Arc is remarkably retold in Helen Castor’s best-selling account, now presented in an incredible Folio Society edition.

The history of one of the world’s most fascinating civilisations, a people both dynamic and feared, is newly presented in a stunning two-volume Folio edition.