The second volume of Ken Wharton’s history offers a month-by-month account of events in the troubled province from January 1988 to December 1990, a period of unremitting bombings, shootings, ambushes and kidnappings. The timeline is interspersed with frank interviews with both Republican and Loyalist paramilitaries, members of the security forces, and victims’ relatives. Unapologetically raw and emotional, the book is explicit in its portrayal of the human cost of terrorism, and its condemnation of both sides in the conflict.

In January 1956, the home of Martin Luther King, the leader of the Montgomery Improvement Association, was bombed; by December, the black citizens’ campaign had ended segregation on the city’s buses. In this survey of 1956, Simon Hall describes how frustration with the post-war order caused ordinary people across the world – in places as far-flung as Algeria, Eastern Europe, South Africa, Cyprus and Cuba – to speak out, take to the streets and sometimes die in the bid for greater freedoms.

One of the founders of modern Israel, Shimon Peres served his country as prime minister, president and foreign minister. He is best remembered, however, for his unswerving commitment to peace. In this final book, completed shortly before his death in 2016, he reflects on 70 years in politics, the turning points in Israeli history, the qualities required for leadership, and the hard choices that face his nation in the quest for peace.

As a Reuters correspondent in Moscow from 1988 to 1995, Peter Conradi witnessed first-hand the collapse of communism and how ‘something wild, new and untested emerged to take its place’. In this book, he tracks the changes that have taken place in Russia since the 1990s through its relations with the West, from the end of the Cold War, through years of tentative cooperation to a new confrontation.

During the late seventies a series of security breaches within the US Embassy in Moscow led not only to several CIA agents being expelled from Russia, but to the execution of their Russian-born ‘assets’. This story of how the embassy was compromised follows several CIA and National Security Agency officers in their investigations into innovative Soviet tradecraft, uncovering advanced surveillance technology, moles, ‘walk-ins’ and microwave attacks.

The former British Ambassador in Germany and France, Sir Christopher Mallaby began his diplomatic career in the USSR; and in 1962 he was in Moscow during the Cuban missile crisis. It was the first of several crucial moments in world history which Sir Christopher witnessed – including the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, the Falklands War, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany – and his memoirs offer an insider’s view of international diplomacy and the diplomatic world.

With his usual incisive analysis, Chomsky surveys the international situation and examines the way in which the United States, although diminished in power since its peak at the end of the Second World War, still sets the terms of global discourse. He asks not only ‘who rules the world?’ but explores how they are proceeding, where their efforts are leading, and how the people can overcome the power of business and nationalist ideology.

China is rapidly becoming the most powerful nation on earth, and its leader, Xi Jingping, is enshrined in its constitution – an honour not seen since Chairman Mao. This succinct, accessible primer charts his rise to power and explains his world-view, his plans to eradicate poverty and extend his country’s global reach, his thoughts on China’s Communist legacy – and how far he is prepared to go to defend it.

The overthrow of Qaddafi in 2011 appeared to signal a new dawn for Libya, but the country's future now seems uncertain once again. This comprehensive study navigates Libya's long history of occupation and despotic rule, from the ancient Greeks, through the Ottoman Empire to Mussolini. It provides an in-depth account of Qaddafi's regime, the Lockerbie bombing and the Arab Spring, and assesses the prospects for democracy in this troubled land.

From the Second World War to the ‘War on Terror’, Britain’s secret state has undertaken covert operations and amassed a vast amount of information on its citizens. Drawing on rigorous research and previously unseen material, this groundbreaking work of investigative journalism reveals how the security services have fought unreported wars abroad, forged links with terrorists in Northern Ireland and elsewhere, and used a cloak of secrecy to conceal illegal activities, hide official embarrassment and distort the historical record. Slightly off-mint.

Hilde F Johnson, the former UN Special Representative in South Sudan, provides an insider’s account of the years following the country’s declaration of independence in July 2011. From her vantage point in Juba, Johnson witnessed how the seeds of conflict were sown and the rapid escalation of violence into what Desmond Tutu describes in his foreword as ‘an atrocious and senseless civil war’. This in-depth study of the new nation attempts to answer the question: why?

Margaret Thatcher remains one of Britain’s most polarizing prime ministers. This provocative investigation sheds new light on the Iron Lady’s war against the ‘enemies within’: striking miners, trades unionists, anti-nuclear protestors, feminists, gay rights campaigners and poll tax protesters. Drawing on countless news reports, studies and personal recollections, it sifts the real conspiracies from the theories that flourished in a paranoid age, to chart the lasting effects of the growth of the secret state on British society.

In October 1956, the Hungarian people rebelled against their Soviet overlords; by 4 November, the revolt had been brutally crushed, leaving thousands dead and a quarter of a million in exile. Erich Lessing (b.1923) was the first Western photographer on the scene: accompanied by short essays on the revolution, the 150 images reproduced here capture the hope and despair of the short-lived uprising.

Jang Jin-Sung was one of North Korea’s most senior counter-intelligence officers, a member of Kim Jong-Il’s inner circle, with all the privileges that entailed. Yet he could not ignore the disparity between his own life and the lives of the people he saw starving in the street. In this harrowing first-hand account, he describes the inner workings of the secretive state, and recounts his own daring escape across a frozen river into China to freedom in the West.

Israel's victory in the Six-Day War of 1967 gave the young nation new confidence, but not all of its consequences were beneficial. In the final volume of his acclaimed trilogy charting Israel's history, Leslie Stein provides a vivid account of the country's economic, social and political development over the past four decades, its military engagements, its relations with the Palestinians, the settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, and the varying fortunes of migrants from Russia and Ethiopia.

In 2012 the security journalist Glenn Greenwald received an email from Edward Snowden, a contractor for the National Security Agency. At a clandestine meeting in Hong Kong Snowden handed over flash drives detailing the scale of illegal spying by the USA and Britain. This bestselling book gives the inside story of what followed: the fear of discovery and arrest, Snowden's flight to Russia, and the attempts to cover up this massive abuse of power.

With characteristic rigour, balance and readability, one of the world's foremost experts on the Israel-Palestine conflict charts its development from the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the 2008 invasion of Gaza. Shlaim assesses the impact of key figures such as Yasser Arafat, Ariel Sharon, Edward Said and Benny Morris, re-examines the role of the US, explores the many missed opportunities for peace, and considers the troubled region's future prospects.

In 2008, as Robert Mugabe refused to cede power after losing an election, Godwin defied the ban on foreign journalists and returned to his native Zimbabwe to see at first hand the violence and injustices of the dictator's regime during the period known as the Fear. In this book he describes his visits to the opposition leaders, farmers, churchmen and diplomats who courageously put their lives on the line as they resisted Mugabe's thugs. Felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

As Scotland, Wales and England go their separate ways, what is left of Great Britain? Founding editor of the Independent on Sunday, now a columnist with the Guardian, Ian Jack is one of Britain's most insightful social commentators. This collection of his articles spans 20 years and ranges from the Titanic to consumerism, and reflects - often ruefully - on what it means to be British today.

Since 2001, the US 'War on Terror' has achieved what Osama bin Laden could not: the unification of the jihad under the banner of Al-Qa'ida. In this important and meticulously researched study, Lebanese-born investigative journalist Camille Tawil draws on his unique access to key players to show how the failure of nationalist struggles in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere has drawn insurgents into Al-Qa'ida's orbit, with alarming implications for global security.

A comprehensive overview of the evolution of Shi’i opposition in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia from the Iranian Revolution in 1979 to the ascension of King

Bird and Marshall examine how and why the international community failed to achieve its October 2001 objectives in Afghanistan and why life has got worse rather than better for many Afghan citizens.

Islamic fundamentalism has grabbed the headlines as both a threat to the West and a potentially revolutionary trend in the Middle East. This authoritative study provides a much-needed overview of its origins and diverse strands, the effects of colonialism on Islam, secularism and the Islamic reaction, the effects of globalization, and political violence in the 9/11 era. This fully revised and updated edition also examines recent developments in the wake of the Arab Spring of 2011.

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More than 3,500 people were killed during the conflict in the North of Ireland between 1969 and 1998, leaving a terrible legacy of grief and bitterness. Drawing on interviews with survivors, families and friends on both sides of the sectarian divide, this book explores the difficult aftermath of the Troubles, as some seek truth and justice while others prefer to forget. Humane, impartial and moving, it gives voice to the ordinary people too often overlooked in official histories.

John Simpson spent over two decades reporting from Saddam Hussein's Iraq. This is his compelling account of his experiences. He examines the period leading up to the 1991 Gulf War, the increasing tyranny of the regime in the years that followed, and the controversial question of the country's weapons programme. He offers his frank assessment of George Bush and Tony Blair's decision to go to war in 2003, and traces its chaotic aftermath up to the capture of Saddam.

Dealing analytically with the movement as a whole, this is a study of the East German uprising that overthrew Honecker's regime and culminated in the transition to parliamentary democracy in 1990. No jacket.

Western commentators usually attribute the turmoil in the Middle East to interference by global powers such as Britain, France, Russia and the USA. This provocative study aims to overturn that view, arguing that it is the culmination of long-existing trends in the region, from the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire to the rise of Isil, and that only when Middle Eastern people take responsibility for their actions, and the West drops its condescending approach, can the region look forward to a real Arab Spring.

Fidel Castro (1926-2016) was a towering figure, the leader of Cuba's revolution and one of the world's last Communist strongmen; but his fiercely defended privacy meant that biographers could barely scratch the surface of his personal life. Here Juan Sanchez, once Castro’s bodyguard, but later persecuted by the regime, shares his intimate knowledge of this 'man of the people' who amassed vast personal wealth (partly through government-sanctioned drug-running) and enjoyed a lavish lifestyle including a luxury yacht and secret island marina.

Subtitled The Impact of the Good Friday Agreement on Northern Ireland, this volume looks at post-conflict peace- building efforts in the political, social and economic long-term peace.

Books 3 and 4 (The Certainties of Place and A Thicker Cut), here bound in a single volume, continue Kynaston's extraordinarily evocative narrative, from an ailing King George VI opening the Festival of Britain and the Conservative victory that made Churchill once more Prime Minister, to the Suez crisis, Soviet action in Hungary and bus fares raised in Lowestoft to offset petrol rises. Slightly off-mint.

In this third edition of Macdonald's widely praised introduction to Korea (first published 1988), Donald Clark has revised and updated the study to cover developments on the peninsula from 1988 to 1995.

This concise, readable and timely book offers an in-depth treatment of environmental, social and demographic issues, discussing topics such as energy supplies, cross-border crime and immigration.

In this hard-hitting account of Britain's military occupation of southern Iraq, from the aftermath of the 2003 invasion to 2009, when the last British troops were ordered to leave by the Iraqi government, Richard North argues that the occupation was an abject failure and the blame lies with the Blair government's failure to provide the Army with the forces and equipment to meet a challenge that it and the military establishment had hopelessly misread from the start.